Let It Snow
by GiveAThimble
Summary: There is nothing more scary in the world then meeting your boyfriend's family, especially when you're too busy hoping for him to propose to care. A Christmas AU.
1. Puppy Love

**AN: This is a finchel fanfic I wrote for the upcoming holidays. If you are reading my other current finchel fanfic, Dart Through the Heart, do not threat. I am hard at work with that story, but I just felt like taking a short break from that to write this. It's going to be about six chapters long, so enjoy!**

A phone rang from another cubicle as Rachel pounded on the keyboard of her laptop, her mind racing. She had only the rest of the day to finish writing this article, and there was no way she was stopping now. Even the loud chattering of her coworkers and the smell of hot coffee with chocolate syrup wouldn't distract her from getting this done. Only one more paragraph to write, Rachel thought to herself, and then I could hand it in and call it a day. And then when she did hand it in, she could move on to her next torture chamber; something much more scary then getting an article done by its deadline.

"Are you almost done there?" Someone asked from next to Rachel, and Rachel spared a glance in Quinn's direction, hardly hearing the words she was saying. Yes, she was almost done, but talking to Quinn wasn't going to make her type faster.

"Just about, now all I have to do is e-mail it to Will, and I can leave this place for Christmas break." Rachel said, smiling to herself as she went on her e-mail and attached her article, sending it to her boss, Will Schuester. Quinn smiled too as she leaned over to see Rachel sending the article away. She held out a mug of coffee to Rachel, who took it gratefully from her.

"So what are you doing for Christmas? Are we going to have our yearly last minute Christmas shopping tradition? Beth has been talking for months that she wants this new Barbie doll, and I've looked everywhere for it. The only place that still has it is this really small shop in downtown New York, and I need you to come with me." Quinn said, and Rachel sighed loudly as she thought about what her Christmas break contained.

"Sorry Quinn, you're going to have to do it without me. I'm meeting the family in their cottage in Canada." Rachel explained, and Quinn raised an eyebrow at her, not knowing if she should be shocked that Rachel's actually meeting the family or that the family has a cottage in Canada.

"Wow Rachel; meeting the family, that's a big step in a relationship. That's how you know it's serious between you two." Quinn said, and Rachel couldn't help but snort. Yeah, she hoped that meant it was serious between the two of them; they had been dating for a year and a half now, and Rachel was in love with him. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, she was absolutely sure of it, but that didn't mean Rachel was excited to meet his family. Just thinking about it made Rachel feel the need to throw up.

"I remember when I first met Puck's family; the minute I showed up in his house for Thanksgiving, his mother whipped out a wedding planner. She was so excited that she was actually meeting one of Puck's girlfriends for once, that she just knew that I was the one. We picked out my wedding dress that day." Quinn said with a giggle from the memory, and Rachel couldn't bear to give her more than a smile. Maybe it had been easy for Quinn, but that was because Puck's mother had been so easy to please and the only other person in the family had been Puck's little sister, but her situation was different. There was a stepdad and a stepbrother and a boyfriend to impress; they all had to like her to welcome her into the family with opened arms.

"They're going to hate me. I can just tell." Rachel said quietly, and Quinn rolled her eyes at her. No one ever actually hated Rachel; it was impossible to do so. Rachel was outgoing, talented, smart, pretty, and nice; any mother would be lucky to call her a daughter-in-law, but of course, Rachel couldn't see that.

"They are not going to hate you; stop worrying about it." Quinn tried to assure her, but Rachel didn't look much assured, "Do you want to go out for an early dinner or something? I'm starving."

"I can't; Finn and I are meeting up for Christmas shopping." Rachel said, and Quinn sighed, not really in the mood to actually go home and cook dinner for her husband and her child. Rachel gave her a sympathetic look as she stood up and put her winter coat on that was hanging on her chair. "Sorry Quinn, but I'll see you next week okay?"

"Okay, call me while you're in Canada and tell me how it's going." Quinn said, and Rachel nodded to show that she understood. She gave Quinn a tight hug, before pulling away, and Quinn wished her good luck. Yeah, Rachel would need it.

"_Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man's hat."_

She riffled through the racks of long sleeve shirts, biting her lower lip in concentration. Everywhere around her, people were checking things off their lists and talking loudly with whomever they were with, their purchase in their hands. Rachel didn't even notice a tall man sneaking up behind her until her wrapped her in his arms, gently kissing her neck. Rachel giggled as she pulled away.

"Finn, stop it, you can't do that in public." Rachel said, but she smiled anyway as she pushed Finn away from her body, and turned to look at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, stretching a little in the process. Finn grinned at her as he bent down a little to kiss her on the lips. After a moment and before she could deepen the kiss, Finn pulled away.

"I got to go get you your gift." He said, and Rachel scoffed at him as Finn ran away from her towards the jewelry section of the mall. Not able to help her curiosity getting the better of her, Rachel quietly followed Finn after a moment of contemplating the idea, leaving that pink sweater she was holding at the rack. Making sure that Finn didn't catch her, Rachel followed him a few feet behind, hoping no one would notice her following someone; even if that someone was her boyfriend. She watched as he stopped in front of a glass counter full of jewelry with an old man and woman standing behind it.

Finn said a couple of words to the man, leaning in a little to put his elbows on the counter, and the man gave him a knowing smile, and then led Finn to another glass counter. Rachel watched closely from where she stood as Finn looked into the counter, his eyes scanning the jewelry. He pointed at something in the counter, a smile now on his face, and the man and woman peered down at what he was pointing at, matching smiles appearing on their face. They exchanged a few words, and it seemed to Rachel that they were making some sort deal. She moved in a little closer to get a better look, but then the woman got in her way, blocking whatever Finn and the man were doing. It was another few minutes before Finn moved away from the counter and the couple, waving to them and patting his coat pocket.

Yes! Yes! _YES! _

Rachel was pretty sure she knew what Finn had just bought her, but she needed to make sure of it before she got too excited. Moving probably faster than she should, Rachel ran towards the old man and woman, reaching the jewelry counter. The couple looked at her curiously as Rachel looked down at the counter where Finn had bought something for her, and her jaw dropped in shock. Next to the key chains were the rings, which Finn must have clearly been looking at. Yes, she figured this was what he was buying but it still surprised her greatly, and Rachel found that she couldn't talk.

"Excuse me ma'am, is there something I can help you with?" Asked the man, and Rachel looked up at him, suddenly remembering that she was not alone. She looked up at the man and woman who were smiling at her kindly, almost like they knew what she was thinking.

"Err, yes. The man who was just here, he's a friend of mine, and I, uh, need to buy him a gift. Can you maybe tell me what he was looking at?" Rachel asked, hoping that she had lied well. But the man and woman only smiled at her as if to say "we know you're only playing us", as if they knew the truth as to why she wanted to know what Finn had just bought.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but we're not allowed to give out private information like that." Said the woman, and Rachel forced herself to give the woman another smile. Yes, but Rachel wasn't just some random stranger; she was Finn's girlfriend, if it was anyone's business as to what kind of jewelry Finn was buying, it was hers.

"I understand that, but that man, Finn Hudson, he's a _very _good friend, and I just simply must know what he bought. Can you at least tell me what kind of jewelry he bought? Was it over here, with the rings?" She asked, needing to have some sort of idea of what Finn exactly had in mind when he bought her the jewelry; the jewelry that she dearly hoped was an engagement ring. But the old couple still looked at her with that annoying knowing look, smiling dearly at her.

"You'll find out soon enough honey." Said the woman, and the man's smile grew even wider. Sighing loudly, Rachel gave up on getting the answer out of them, deciding that her hunches were usually right anyway and it probably was an engagement that Finn had bought her. She had a feeling he was going to do that for a while now.

"Thank you for your time anyway." Rachel sighed, and the couple smiled and waved at her as she walked away. Rachel only walked a couple of feet, deep in thought as she wondered when exactly Finn would pop the question, before she bumped right into Finn.

"What are you doing Rachel? I thought you were looking at the sweaters over there." Finn asked as he caught her in his arms, glancing at the jewelry counter and then at the area with the sweaters where he had left Rachel. Rachel opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out, so she only smiled at him, thinking about the ring that was now inside his pocket.

"I was, but I wanted to see what kind of jewelry they had. I really want some for Christmas; what did you get me Finn?" Rachel asked innocently, trying to get a peek into the shopping bag he was holding even though Rachel knew that the ring wouldn't be in there. Finn held the bag away from her, giving her a smirk.

"No, no, no. You don't get to see until Christmas morning." He told her, and Rachel shot him her puppy dog eyes, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning in close. Finn only stared down at her, still smiling that silly grin.

"Please Finny. Please, you can give it to me right here if you want." She begged, and then ever so lightly touched his lips with hers, kissing Finn gently. Finn kissed her back, but only for a moment before lightly pushing her away.

"No Rachel, you won't persuade me with kisses and that smoldering look. Not until Christmas morning." Finn told her sternly, and Rachel sighed loudly, brushing her brown bangs away from her face. Why did she have to wait an entire week until getting the ring, couldn't Finn just give it to her now so she could rejoice and they could make sweet, passionate love?

"Oh come on, give me a clue at least. Is it something I can wear?" Rachel asked, taking Finn's hand and playfully swinging it back and forth. Finn grinned at her, pulling her away from the jewelry and into a clothing store.

"Maybe, maybe not; I guess you're just going to have to wait and see." Finn said, and seeing that there was no use in trying to get it out of Finn now, she followed Finn towards a rack of clothes, frowning. When he wanted to be, Finn could be stubborn, and now was not a time to be stubborn. They were talking about marriage and engagement here!

"Why do I even love you?" Rachel sighed as she followed Finn, and Finn turned to her, smiling. He touched her cheek lightly, and then gently moved it to run his fingers through her hair, his face so close to hers. She could feel his breathe against her skin, and couldn't help but fall even more in love with him. She might not really understand why she loved Finn so much, but she did. Rachel knew that much.

"You love me because for some _insane _reason you found something in me worth loving. And I will be forever thankful for that." Finn whispered, and Rachel leaned up to kiss him, something coming over her. After a long moment of slow kissing, Finn's hand on her hip, she opened her mouth, letting Finn's tongue slip in. The kiss grew deeper before Finn and Rachel pulled away for air.

"I love you." Rachel whispered, cupping Finn's face and holding him close. He wrapped his arms around her body, pulling Rachel closer so their bodies were pressed up against each other's.

"I love you too." He said, and Rachel smiled as they kissed again.

_One Year and a Half Ago_

_The taxi driver whistled an annoying tune as Rachel tapped her fingers on her leg, impatiently waiting for the taxi to start moving. Cars honked all around her as the driver smiled at her through the rear view window, and Rachel only frowned back at him. She was late for work as it was, and she had an early meeting which she was missing right now. Will was going to kill her and probably take her off the big magazine Broadway project of the year (a project she had been dyeing to be a part of since she first started working for the magazine). _

_ "Is there any way we could get pass this traffic? I'm late for work and I have a meeting." Rachel asked the driver, and he only glanced at her. _

_ "Sorry but no; we're stuck behind this guy and he won't move for some reason." He said, and Rachel huffed loudly, as she moved her head to see the car that wasn't moving in front of them. She only got a glimpse of the car and could see a man sitting in the driver's seat, leaning over to look at something in the passenger's seat. Rachel gaped at him; he was literally just sitting there, a worried look on his face, but nonetheless, just sitting there. What was wrong with him? Why wasn't he driving? Didn't he know that unlike him, people had lives and jobs to get to?_

_ "I can't believe this." Rachel grumbled, as she opened her door, the driver watching her go. Rachel stomped over to the car where the man sat, ignoring the honking cars. Bending down to be eye level with the passenger's window, she knocked on it loudly, frowning. The man, hearing the sound of the knocking, looked up at her, and that's when Rachel noticed the Dalmatian laying on the passenger's seat, his eyes closed. The man lowered the window to talk to Rachel, his eyes going from the dog to Rachel with a worried expression on his face._

_ "Do you mind if you keep driving? I'm late for an important meeting!" Rachel said harshly, her focus back on the man. Now that she got a closer look at him, Rachel realized that this guy was actually kind of good looking; he had brown hair and amber eyes that she found herself easily getting lost in. But now was not a time to start falling for a man; she didn't have time for that._

_ "If you haven't realized Miss, my dog is having a heart attack or something. I think that's a bit more important than your stupid meeting. I don't know what's wrong with him!" Said the man, the first two sentences coming out in a rude tone, and the last one sounding more like panic. Hearing what he had just said, Rachel looked down at the poor dog, forgetting about her meeting completely. She was a sucker for animals; not one creature would be hurt if she was there to stop it._

_ "Oh, poor thing, I hope he's alright. Don't you think we should take him to veterinarian? Do you want me to go with you? It's no problem." She asked urgently, opening the door and bending low to look more closely at the dog. Rachel gently put her hand on the dog's fur, petting him lightly as she looked up at the man, sincerity on her face. _

_ "Oh, err, sure. I had just called the vet now to say that I was coming and that it was an emergency." The man said, taken back by Rachel's quick change in personality, and Rachel went back to her taxi, paying the driver and jumping into the back of man's car, urgently telling him to get a step on it. _

_ As soon as they had arrived at the veterinarian's, they had taken the man's dog in, which Rachel learned had oddly been named Pillar. They sat in some of the chairs of the front hall which were accompanied by only a few other people, the unknown man drumming his fingers on the armchair. _

_ "I'm sorry, I still don't know what you're name is. I'm Rachel, Rachel Berry." Rachel said, putting out her hand for him to shake, as to distract him from whatever was happening to Pillar in the other room. He looked at her, having blocked her out for a moment before taking her hand, shaking it for a second before taking it away._

_ "I'm Finn Hudson. Thanks for helping me; I was really panicking back there. It was like, I was just driving with Pillar relaxing, and then he seemed to be spazzing out and suddenly was just lying there, his eyes closed. I guess I just freaked out; I didn't even think to pull over. I called the vet, and I then I just froze in panic. I mean, what am I without Pillar? I've had him for so long I don't know what I would do if something had happened to him." Finn said, his hands gripping his hair, and Rachel greatly felt the need to put her arm around him and comfort him, but didn't deem it appropriate. _

_ "I'm sorry Finn, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Mr. Woo even said when he took him in that he didn't think it was that bad. Pillar will be fine in no time." Rachel tried to assure Finn, patting his shoulder affectionately. Finn looked from his lap to Rachel's face, giving her a smile. That was when Rachel realized how attractive Finn actually was, more so than he seemed to be in the car; when she had first seen him, she was too busy being pissed at him to notice it, and after that she was too worried about Pillar to even get a good look at Finn's face, but now his looks had her full attention. And boy did she like those looks._

_ "I hope so. Ever since my mom remarried, he's been my dog and my best friend. It's like what they say, you know, a dog is a man's best friend? It's true; especially if you're a single guy living in New York alone and playing your drums with your band all the time. He's my best bud; I would be lost without him." Finn told her honestly, not knowing why he was trusting Rachel with all these private thoughts, but they felt right to tell her anyway; almost like he was meant to tell her these things, but that just sounded crazy._

"_That's amazing Finn. I can see how much you care about Pillar, and I know I just met him, but I know I care about him too." Rachel said, and Finn smiled again, about to open his mouth and say something, perhaps to do a little innocent flirting, but then the doors that Pillar had been taken into swung open and out came Mr. Woo._

_ "Finn, everything is fine. You can calm down." Said Mr. Woo instantly, seeing Finn and Rachel siting there. Finn stood up quickly, taking giant steps towards Mr. Woo, Rachel following closely behind. Finn and Rachel let out a simultaneous sigh of relief as Mr. Woo talked._

_ "What had happened? Is Pillar okay to take home?" Finn asked, and Mr. Woo gave the two of them a soft smile before answering._

_ "Pillar is a very old dog; you've had him since he was puppy when you were 16, correct? Pillar's simply getting old; he had a short heart attack, but fortunately you were able to get him here quick enough to save him. He should be fine for the time being. I think he just needs to relax more and rest. He's much more tired than he used to be, and I think you need to remind yourself of that Finn." Mr. Woo told them, and Finn smiled a little, glad to know that Pillar was alright. He knew his little guy was getting older, but it didn't mean Finn liked to think about it very often. _

_ "Thank you so much. Really; thank you." Finn sighed out, and Rachel let out a short laugh in relief as Mr. Woo went back to through the doors to check on Pillar. With only a moment of silence where the pair let relief wash over them, Finn turned to Rachel, sighing loudly._

_ "I think that because you kind of helped save my dog's life, I owe you dinner." Finn said, rather impressed with how smooth it had come out. Rachel only smiled at him, bravely taking Finn's hand._

_ "That would be lovely." _


	2. Awkwardness Ensured

The sun shined through the kitchen window, glistening on the long icicles hanging from the window sill. Carole opened the curtain a little more to let some of the light in as she emptied the dishwasher, her favorite winter sweater on. Burt sat at the wooden, round table, drinking his coffee out of a holiday mug and reading the paper silently. They enjoyed this early silence; that quietness the couple hardly seemed to have anymore because someone always seemed to be interrupting them and breaking their peacefulness. Putting the last plate away, Carole closed the dishwasher and joined the Burt at the table, picking up the latest novel she was reading. She was trying to stay calm and relax, she truly was, but her son would be here any minute now and he would be bringing that woman he had been talking about for the last year or so. And from the way he talked about her, Carole knew that this girl was something special.

"Hey Carole, have you been borrowing my moisturizer again?" Came a voice from down the hall, and footsteps followed the voice as Carole's silence was broken with the entrance of Kurt. Both Carole and Burt looked up at Kurt, who was still wrapped in his robe, his hands on his hips.

"Did you forget it in LA?" Carole asked, and Kurt's eyes widened a little, trying to remember if he had remembered to pack it. Well of course he had remembered; Kurt didn't go anywhere without his proper skin care materials. They were on his standard checklist for traveling.

"Are you_ sure _you didn't borrow it and forget to put it back?" He asked again, sure that it wasn't his fault he couldn't find the moisturizer. Carole rolled her eyes as Kurt stared at her expectedly, and she checked her watch to see what time it was; Finn should be here soon.

"Yes, Kurt, I'm sure. Now go get dressed; Finn will be here any minute!" she said, and Kurt turned to walk back upstairs mumbling to himself that he knew Finn was going to be here soon and he needed to find his moisturizer so he could cover all of the practically nonexistent pimples on his face.

Thirty minutes later, Finn still wasn't there yet, and Burt still sat at the table, his coffee in his right hand and the newspaper in his left. Carole's eyes shifted to the clock on the wall, to Burt, and back to her breakfast sitting in front of her over and over again.

"He should be here by now. What if something had happened?" She asked Burt, who just shrugged, and Carole sighed heavily as Kurt reentered the kitchen in skinny jeans and long sleeves shirt with a red tie. He walked over to the kitchen counter, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"When is Finn getting here? What's this girl supposed to be like?" Kurt asked with his eyes on the coffee machine.

"I don't know; he should have been here already. By the sound of her, the girl seems very nice. Oh, what's her name again Burt?" Carole asked, turning to Burt, as the husband didn't even bother to look away from the newspaper when he answered.

"Rachel." He said gruffly, and Carole nodded her head quickly, turning back to Kurt with a smile on her face as if she had been the one who had remembered Rachel's name.

"Yes; that's her name, Rachel. From what I hear from Finn, she's a journalist and an excellent singer. According to him, it's always been a big dream of hers to go into Broadway, but she came to realize later in high school that acting wasn't a stable career and went into journalism instead." Carole explained, and Kurt raised an eyebrow, slightly interested. Well, if Rachel was a Broadway babe, maybe he would like her after all. God knows she can't be any worse than Finn's last girlfriend.

"Well either way, you know we're going to like her better than Finn's last girlfriend. I can't remember her name now, but she was a real bitch." Burt said, and Kurt smiled to himself, remembering how that relationship had worked out. He took a sip of his coffee before answering.

"Her name was Santana, Dad. Didn't she turn out to be a lesbian?" Kurt asked with a smirk, and then Blaine appeared in the doorway, fully dressed and walking towards the fridge. Burt smiled in memory of when he found out from Finn that Santana was a lesbian; he thought it was really funny, but couldn't laugh about it in front of Finn because he didn't want to hurt the kid's feelings.

"That's my favorite part of the Santana story. She was a lesbian; who knew?" Blaine said, opening the fridge and taking out a bag of grapes. Kurt giggled as Blaine kissed his forehead good morning, both from the kiss and from the memory. Carole sighed loudly, hoping that at least the time, Finn knew of Rachel's true sexuality. She didn't want another episode of the "My girlfriend doesn't play for my team" debacle.

"I think I hear a car." Burt said quietly, his eyes going from the paper to the kitchen window where they had a good view of the driveway. Simultaneously, all four of them ran to the small window, all trying to get a peek at Finn's car pulling up in the driveway. Thanks to Finn's tinted windows, they couldn't even see this Rachel girl as Finn got out of the driver's seat, closed the door, and quickly walked over to the other side of the car to open the passenger's seat.

"Oh no, he's pulling a gentlemen move. That's so Finn." Kurt said, and Blaine nodded in agreement. They watched closely as Finn opened the door, and noticed when a wide grin appeared on Finn's face when he laid eyes on the woman inside. Kurt didn't like that grin on his step-brother's face; that meant that whoever this girl was, Finn was in love with her, a lot. And that meant that she was sticking around, even if Kurt didn't like her.

"Dear God, what is she wearing?" Blaine said in a shocked tone, and Kurt was surprised that it got out of his mouth before it could get out of his own. Blaine was right; this Rachel woman was wearing a butt ugly long, brown skirt with a big red coat where Kurt could slightly see that she had a matching sweater on under it. Kurt was sure that wherever Finn had picked up this girl, it had definitely not had been at Barney's.

"Well if the only problem we have with this Rachel is that she has a bad fashion sense, I guess we got off lucky." Carole mumbled more to herself then the others as Finn opened the door to the back seat and started pulling suitcases out, handing some to Rachel. Once they had taken all the bags out, the pair still oblivious to the four eyes in the window, Finn dropped the suitcase he was holding and leaned down to kiss Rachel, his hand on her cheek. Rachel dropped the two bags she was holding to wrap her arms around Finn, kissing him just as deeply back. All four of them watching through the window shifted uncomfortably.

"Are they ever going to stop or are we going to have to watch them kiss for the rest of the day?" Burt asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Carole cleared her throat, and Kurt bravely knocked on the window as loudly as possible, hoping it would get Finn's attention. Luckily, Finn jerked away from Rachel, having heard the tapping from the window, and quickly glanced up at where the sound had come from, saw his family staring at him, and went deep red in the face. Kurt only guessed that Rachel was confused as of why Finn had pulled away, but when she saw him waving to someone at the window, she turned around to see who was there, turning just as red as Finn was. She waved too with a smile, and Blaine noted that she had a pretty smile.

"And here we go." Said Carole, and she left the three of them by the window, rushing to the front door to welcome Finn and his girlfriend. The other three followed her, standing behind Carole as she opened the door, Finn and Rachel walking up the driveway and to the front steps, suitcases in both hands and a smile on their faces, Finn's more sure then Rachel's.

"Oh Finn; it's so good to see you! Come give your mother a kiss!" Carole shouted in jubilation, and she ran out to meet Finn, her hands on both sides of Finn's face as she gave him a big kiss on each cheek, Finn's hands still on the suitcases as Rachel watched the scene with a shy smile. After telling Finn how much older Finn looked and how she hoped the drive up to Canada wasn't too bad because she knew how long it took them to drive all the way up here, Carole pulled away from Finn, giving Rachel her full attention.

"And you must be Rachel! It's so nice to meet you Rachel! Oh, this is going to be such a lovely Christmas, I can tell already!" Carole said in a high voice, laughing insanely. Rachel giggled, telling Carole that it was nice to meet her too as Carole took her face in her hands, kissing both cheeks. Finn smirked amusingly, wondering what had gotten into his mother as she pulled away from Rachel and took a suitcase from her.

"Burt, Kurt, Blaine; come see Finn and Rachel! She's so nice and pretty Kurt; you were worried for no reason at all!" Carole shouted towards the front door where Burt, Kurt, and Blaine still stood, watching Finn and Rachel closely. Kurt didn't feel like mentioning to Carole that Rachel had hardly even said anything yet, so Carole didn't actually know if Rachel was nice. Finn and Rachel followed Carole up the front steps, and stepped into the front hall, Burt shuffling around to make room for all of them to fit in the small hall, Finn closing the door after Rachel.

"Burt, Kurt, Blaine." Finn said as he hugged each of them, a grin on his face. Rachel still had that shy smile on her face, as Finn pulled away from Blaine to put his arm around Rachel, pulling her into his side. "Guys, this is Rachel, my girlfriend."

"It's so nice to meet you Rachel, Finn has told us lots about you." Burt said, the first person to open his mouth, putting his hand out awkwardly, and Rachel took it, shaking it for a moment before letting go.

"All good things I hope." Rachel said with a nervous giggle, and Kurt couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Of course it was all good things; you're Finn's girlfriend; why would he have bad things to say about his significant other?" Kurt said, and Rachel shifted her gaze to the floor, embarrassed as both Finn and Blaine glared at Kurt.

"I could think of a few bad things to say about you right now." Blaine told Kurt darkly, and Kurt gave him a quick slap on the arm for the comment as Finn watched the two of them with a smirk. He knew Kurt wasn't going to easily taken a liking to Rachel; it took Kurt a while to warm up to people, but Blaine was a very welcoming person to just about anyone he met.

"Err, that's Kurt, and his boyfriend Blaine." Finn said after an awkward silent moment where Kurt and Blaine glared at each other. At hearing their introductions, Kurt and Blaine turned their attention back to Rachel, smiling politely at her.

"Hi Rachel, I'm Blaine. It's good to meet you." Blaine said, not letting Rachel think about it as he took her into a big hug. Struck by this warm greeting, Rachel could only awkwardly hug back, patting Blaine's back a couple of times. Finally, Blaine pulled away, smiling at her.

"And this is my mom, Carole, and her husband and my stepdad, Burt, Kurt's dad." Finn introduced, gesturing to Carole and Burt, Carole welcoming Rachel with another hug while Burt smiled down at her. Finn brought the conversation back to Kurt and Blaine, a piece of information popping into his head.

"Kurt and Blaine have been together since high school." Finn told Rachel, even though she already knew this. Kurt grinned up at Blaine, his sullen look from before now gone and replaced by an adoring one.

"In July Kurt and I will be going down to New York to get married." Blaine informed Rachel and Finn, and Finn's eyebrows rose in surprise while Carole and Burt beamed with pride.

"Congratulations! Since when was this decided?" Finn asked, while Rachel laughed from his surprise. Before Kurt or Blaine could say something in answer, Burt was so excited that he spoke.

"Yesterday when Kurt and Blaine got here they told us. It's exciting news, don't you think Rachel?" Asked Burt as he turned to Rachel, who only grinned in response because she was happy for Kurt and Blaine. Maybe that could be her and Finn one day; planning their wedding, telling the family of their engagement, getting married. And then Rachel remembered the ring Finn had bought her, and she filled up with excitement at the thought that it wouldn't be long until she could tell people that her and Finn were planning their wedding.

"Absolutely; gay rights have come so far from where they started! My dads recently officially got married in New York. They were so happy; they kept it very small, but it was very sweet." Rachel explained, and Blaine smiled at this news, glad to know that Rachel came from a gay rights family. When they had first met Santana, she liked to spend a lot of her time making fun of Kurt and Blaine's sexuality, which Finn seemed to like to ignore, and Kurt thought Santana was just a homophobe, but it turned out she was gay herself. Kurt had just a tad bit more respect for Santana after he found out her reasons for acting the way she did.

"That's wonderful to hear Rachel. Well, what are we doing all stuck in this small hall? Finn, do you want to take Rachel and your bags upstairs? Kurt and Blaine are taking one room and you two can take the other. I see no reason as to why you two should sleep in separate rooms; you aren't teenagers anymore." Carole said, and Finn nodded with a smile, glad that his mother had just given into the idea of his girlfriend sleeping in the same room with him. When they had first met Blaine, it was years until he could sleep in the same room with Kurt with Burt and Carole's permission.

"Oh, well, okay then." Rachel said uncomfortably, not expecting Carole to be so fine with her son sleeping in the same room with his girlfriend. Finn smiled at his family again, his mom patting his back as he picked up his bags as Rachel did the same, and went up the stairs, Rachel following. Things were quiet as Rachel followed him up the stairs and onto the second floor.

"Do you think they're still down stairs, watching us like hawks?" Rachel asked Finn jokingly, and Finn laughed lightly at her joke as he opened the door to the bedroom he stayed in while at the cottage. Finn had made the room more comfortable and personal as the years went by; a Bobcats Football team poster on the right wall, a full size bed in the middle of the room with a cowboy comforter, a set of drums to practice for his band when he was away in the corner of the room, and a basketball and basketball net hanging on the wall next to the bed. Rachel set her bags down, looking around the room and taking in an unfamiliar smell; it smelled like Finn, but mixed with a strange scent that Rachel could only identify as camping.

"So what do you think? My mom kind of designed it; I haven't had cowboy anything since high school." Finn said with his hands in his pockets and standing by his bed awkwardly. Rachel smiled to herself tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she looked around the room again, taking everything in. It might not have been what Finn's apartment looked like in New York, but it still had that Finn feel to it, and Rachel had a feeling that this was more like Finn back when he was a teenager. And she knew she would love teenager Finn just as much as she loves adult Finn.

"I love it." She said honestly, and Finn grinned at her, moving forward to hold her against him for a kiss.

"_I'll be home for Christmas; you can count on me."_

Carole had put more thought into tonight's dinner than usual; after all, this was a special occasion. It was always so rare that she got to eat dinner with her entire family nowadays since everyone lived so far away from each other, and this was the first dinner she was having with Finn's girlfriend, Rachel, who still looked as nervous as ever. The woman poked at her food, taking small bites nervously as Kurt talked away, letting no one else talk as he went on about the fashion company he was running.

"When did you know you wanted to be a fashion designer, Kurt?" Rachel suddenly asked, and Kurt turned to her, not knowing how to answer that. He had gotten so used to these dinners being about him talking while everyone else pretended to listen that he wasn't expecting someone to ask a question.

"Oh, well, I've always been very into fashion since I was a teenager. I made my own clothes and had been complimented many times on my fashion taste. It was one of the many talents I had, and it was the one I chose to act on. I'm also a very good singer and performer; my performances of _Les Mis_ are outstanding." Kurt said, not really looking at Rachel but finding his food much more interesting.

"Rachel, I hope the vegan burger is okay. Finn mentioned that you've been a vegan since sophomore year of high school, so I went out and bought a cookbook for vegans. I have an entire menu of food I'll be making this week that you can eat." Carole explained, and Rachel looked down at the food she was eating, assuring Carole that it was delicious.

"So how did you two meet exactly? Finn's never went into exact detail of that story." Burt asked, and Finn and Rachel turned to each other, smiling. Rachel especially loved telling this story, she loved that they had bonded over a sick dog.

"Rachel, do you want to tell the story? I know you love to." Finn said with a smile, and Rachel giggled, looking at Burt and Carole, who wore identical expecting faces.

"No Finn, I think I want you to tell it this time." She said, and Finn smiled at her again before turning his attention back to his family, Burt, Carole, and Blaine all eager to hear the story while Kurt just kept picking at his food.

"Alright, well, I was driving to band rehearsal with Pillar in the seat next to me when he started acting really weird. After a couple of minutes of him acting weird he seemed to, like, pass out or something and just laid there with his eyes closed. I was freaking out so much that I didn't even think to park my car, and called the vet, when this woman started tapping on my window. She was pissed at me because she had to get to work and I was blocking the way, but when I explained what had happened to Pillar she felt bad and came with me to the vet. Fortunately, Pillar was okay and I learned that the woman's name was Rachel, and because she helped me with Pillar, I felt the need to take her out for dinner." Finn said with his eyes on Rachel the whole entire time, his hand on hers over the table. Rachel smiled gently back, remembering the day she had met Finn and feeling lucky that she had. Where would she be if she didn't? Rachel didn't want to think about it. Carole beamed at Finn and Rachel, feeling very happy that this time around, it had looked like Finn had met someone worth keeping around. It was about time too.

"Blaine, where are you going?" Finn suddenly snapped, his eyes going from Rachel to Blaine, who stood up from the dinner table. Blaine looked from the kitchen to Finn, his eyes wide like a puppy dog.

"I just wanted to get some more eggnog." He explained, and Finn just waved his hand down.

"No, sit down! I'm not done telling the story!" Finn said harshly, and Blaine sat back down, picking up his empty cup and looking into its empty contents miserably. He looked at Kurt's full cup of eggnog, slowly as for Kurt not to notice who was too busy eating his dinner, taking a sip of it.

"So as I was saying before Blaine interrupted me, I took Rachel out to dinner, which led to another dinner which led to another dinner, and things kind of went from there. I'm not even going to get into details on what we did on the fourth date." Finn said with a laugh, and Rachel laughed nervously too, slapping Finn lightly on the arm. Did he really have to bring up that to his family? They didn't look really comfortable with it as they laughed uncomfortably. Blaine thought Finn had finally finished his story, so he quietly stood up to get more eggnog.

"Speaking of Pillar, where is he? I thought you were bringing him along?" Burt asked, looking around the dining room as if expecting Pillar to just pop out of nowhere. Rachel frowned at remembering where Pillar was while Finn just shook his head.

"The vet said he's getting too old for traveling long distances, so I left him at a dog hotel for Christmas. It's a shame really; he loves the openness and snow so much, and the snow in New York just looks like total crap." Finn said with a frown, and Rachel had to close her eyes tightly for a moment as to not to cry. She actually let out a couple of tears when they dropped Pillar off at the dog hotel; poor dog; he was so sweet and he couldn't even spend Christmas with them.

"Well that's too bad. I'm sure he'll be okay though." Carole assured Finn, knowing how much Pillar meant to him. Rachel shook her head; trying to forget about Pillar at the moment and focus on the dinner she was having right now with Finn's family.

"So if you don't mind me asking, why did you buy a cottage in Canada? It seems a little random of a place to buy a cottage when you live in Ohio." Rachel asked, picking her fork back up. Carole smiled sweetly at Rachel as Blaine rejoined them at the table, Finn only giving Blaine a short glare.

"Thank you for asking Rachel; it was a long discussion we had a couple of years ago, a year after we had been married, to buy a cottage for the holidays or not. We had always wanted a place to go to with a beautiful view of nature, which is why we chose a cottage in a very unpopulated area full of forests, and a place that'll be warm and homely during the cold months. When Burt was younger, his grandparents owned a home in Canada, and he loved it there, so we thought we would buy a cottage here. It's been wonderful since." Carole said, and Rachel nodded her head in understanding while Burt smiled at memories when he was a child.

"It's good to get away for a while, even if we don't get to come up here too often. It's still nice to have it." Burt added, and it was quiet for a few moments as everyone kept eating, until Carole announced that she was going to get desert. When the pound cake and vanilla ice cream had been set on the dinner table, and given out, Blaine spoke.

"I hope your family wasn't too upset about not spending Christmas with you. Kurt and I switch off every year." Blaine said, and Rachel thought about what her dads were doing right now, probably at home, watching TV, not one decoration hanging up.

"Oh, I've never celebrated Christmas before; I'm Jewish." Rachel explained, and Kurt dropped his fork, looking up at Rachel slowly as Carole and Burt looked a little uncomfortable at this realization.

"You're Jewish? I guess that was something Finn forgot to mention." Kurt said quietly, and Rachel glanced at Finn quickly who smiled nervously back at her.

"I didn't think that was important." Finn said, and after a moment where Carole and Burt exchanged looks, Carole turned and smiled widely at Rachel.

"Of course it's not important sweetheart. I think it's better this way anyway; that way we're your first real Christmas experience. The way Rachel views Christmas depends all on us." Carole said, and Burt held up his fork with pound cake on it as in a toast, putting it in his mouth with a smile. Rachel glanced at Kurt, and gave him a small smile hoping he would return it but to her dismay, Kurt only grumbled something and looked down at his ice cream.

"Then let's hope that this Christmas is a good one!" Burt said, and Carole laughed at that, hoping the exact same thing.


	3. The Opinion of Klaine

Rachel stood on one side of the bed, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at Finn, who was standing on the other side of the bed. They were supposed to be going to sleep now, but instead they were up fighting about the silliest thing.

"I said _no _Finn! I'm not going to do it with you when your parents are sleeping just down the hall!" Rachel repeated, and Finn rolled his eyes, thinking that Carole and Burt were probably doing it anyway too so what was the big deal? For once his mom let his girlfriend sleep in the same room as him and Rachel didn't even want to have _sex? _Something wasn't right with this picture here.

"What's the big deal? Mom and Burt are most likely doing it too; you can kind of hear it when you walk by late at night. And Kurt and Blaine do it every night." Finn whined, not wanting to think about either of those couples doing it. Rachel sighed loudly, going over to her main suitcase and pulling out a smaller bag from inside of it.

"Well we're not Burt and Carole or Kurt and Blaine, so you can forget about it. Now I'm going to go brush my teeth and wash my makeup off, and then we'll go to bed and right to sleep; nothing in between." Rachel said in hard voice, and Finn groaned, throwing his head back while Rachel left the room.

She walked down the empty hall, closing the door on a complaining Finn as she went over to the bathroom door. Rachel was about to pass by Kurt and Blaine's room to the bathroom but her name being said in the room stopped her. She shouldn't have let her curiosity get the better of her, Rachel should have just kept walking to the bathroom and minded her own business, but they were talking about her. And if they were talking about her, didn't that make it Rachel's business too?

"I think she's nice. Finn seems to really love her." Came Blaine's voice, and Rachel smiled to herself. Blaine seemed like a good guy, and she was glad that he had good things to say about her. There was a shuffling of feet and then Kurt's voice could be heard.

"Well I don't really like her. She seems fake to me; all she did was compliment Dad and Carole and act all interested in my job when I _know _she wasn't." Kurt said, and Rachel's heart sank. What did she do wrong to make Kurt not like her? Was being interested in Kurt's work and saying nice things to Finn's parent a bad thing? Since when did it mean she was fake? Blaine sighed loudly on the other side of the door.

"Kurt, let it go. Rachel's a good person; you're only acting like this because you think she's going to somehow break Finn's heart. And I know how protective you are about Finn; didn't you use to have thing for him before Burt and Carole got married?" Blaine asked with a teasing tone in his question. Rachel held back a gasp; Finn had never mentioned that before. Whenever Finn had brought up Kurt he talked about how dramatic he was and talented and how good of a brother he was; never that Kurt used to have a crush on him.

"Ugh, don't remind me of that horrific time, Blaine. I really don't like thinking about how bad my taste had been back then. Besides, I was a freshman in high school; I was naïve. But that is _not _the reason why I don't like Rachel. In fact, I'm a little disappointed by Rachel. I mean the girl can sing according to Finn and had the chance to make it on Broadway, and she decided to be a journalist instead? What kind of person gives up big dreams for boring ones instead? Disappointed, I'll tell you Blaine, and unimpressed." Kurt said, and Rachel sank to the floor at hearing his words. Yes, it was true; she had wanted to be a Broadway star when she was young, but she grew out of those dreams, realized bigger ones, but that didn't mean they were boring. It just meant Rachel had different ones. But was that really the only reason why Kurt didn't like her? It seemed a little ridiculous, actually.

"That's a pretty stupid reason to not like Rachel, Kurt." Blaine said, voicing Rachel's thoughts. Rachel nodded in agreement with Blaine.

"I just don't like her, okay? And neither do Dad and Carole; they're only pretending to for the sake of Finn. Hopefully, Finn will come to his senses soon and realize that this dream he has with Rachel, whether it includes marriage or babies or whatever, is nothing but a dream. Rachel will be gone by Easter, guaranteed." Kurt announced, sounding completely sure of himself. Rachel shoved her face in her hands, willing herself not to cry. Was what Kurt said true? Did Burt and Carole not actually like her and were only pretending to? Was everything she had ever imagined with Finn; getting married, having a family together, growing old with one another; was that anything but a reality that Rachel would have to come to terms with come spring?

"That's a little harsh Kurt. But knowing you, if you say it's going to happen like that, it most likely will." Blaine said after a pregnant silence, and Rachel heard some more shuffling within the bedroom, her face still in her hands.

"It will; soon enough Finn will be bringing home another Santana Lopez." Kurt said, and Rachel could practically feel Kurt smile as Blaine let out a small laugh. She wondered what could have been so funny about what Kurt had said.

"It would be funny if she ended up being a lesbian too…but not funny for Finn." Blaine said, and before Rachel could question what Blaine had just said, someone stepped out of the room next to Kurt and Blaine's and they stared down at Rachel for a moment before saying anything.

"Rachel, what are you doing?" Burt asked, and Rachel looked up in surprise to see Burt standing over her, a curious look in his eyes. Feeling her face go red with embarrassment, Rachel looked up at Burt, opening her mouth to say something but finding that nothing was coming out. "You know what, don't worry about it. I'm sure you have your own reasons for sitting on the floor and holding your face like you were crying. I'll just pretend I didn't see you or something."

And with those words, Burt left Rachel on the floor and trotted down the stairs to get something in the kitchen. Rachel glanced at Kurt's door, worried that he might suddenly step out and notice that she had been eavesdropping, and stood up from where she sat, going to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Rachel was finishing up getting ready for bed, brushing her teeth when she heard the bathroom door creak open a little, and turned to see who was standing there; it was Kurt.

"Hi Kurt." Rachel uncomfortably, refusing to look at Kurt at all and keeping her eyes on her reflection in the mirror. Kurt shifted where he stood, his hand on the doorknob and looking at something sitting on the sink.

"I just came in to brush my teeth." He said quietly, and Rachel cleaned off her toothbrush, still not looking at Kurt.

"I'm just about finished; don't worry. I'll be out of your hair in a second." She said simply, and Rachel couldn't help but realize what she had just said could have had a double meaning. Rachel closed her eyes for a second, hoping that the second meaning of those words wouldn't come true. No, Finn had bought her that engagement ring; whatever Kurt thought about her relationship with Finn was wrong, Rachel just knew it.

"It's okay. Hey, is that moisturizer? Can I borrow it; I forgot mine." Kurt said, still looking at the moisturizer that was on the sink. Rachel looked down at the moisturizer, something that Puck, Quinn's husband, had given her for her birthday last year because he didn't know what to get women for their birthdays, and she didn't even use it. It had a bad smell that didn't agree with Rachel.

"Oh, yeah sure you can. You can keep it if you want; I don't like it. My friend's husband gave it to me, and she sort of helped me pack my things, so…." Rachel never finished her sentence because Kurt had jumped for the moisturizer, and Rachel awkwardly washed off her toothbrush, wishing Kurt a good night before brushing past him and leaving the bathroom.

Rachel didn't know why she didn't put Kurt on the spot, and tell him what she had heard. Maybe it was better to be silent and not say anything at all; did Rachel really want to cause more trouble with Kurt? But at the same time, she felt that if she confronted Kurt about whatever issues he has with her, they could get over this and actually be friends. It didn't matter right now anyway; Rachel was going to bed where Finn was already wrapped in covers, his head on the pillows and looking at her expectedly.

"Alright, I've come up with a list of reasons as to why we should have sex. You took longer than I expected, so I've had a lot of time to think about this." Finn said right when Rachel entered the room, and she lightly closed and locked the door behind her. Rachel tried to hold back the tears; it wasn't her fault she was such an emotional drama queen. Her boyfriend's family didn't even like her and Finn was planning to propose to her. How could she ever get married to a man that she loved so dearly, but his family didn't even _like _her?

"Rachel, what's wrong?" Finn asked sincerely as Rachel fell onto the bed, shoving her face into the cowboy comforters. Finn crawled out from his spot under the blankets, moving closer so he was sitting in front of Rachel to stroke her hair lightly. "Babe, what happened?"

"Everyone hates me here." She mumbled into the covers, and although Rachel couldn't see Finn's face, she knew he was shocked and sad to hear this. He kept stroking her hair lightly, and Rachel shifted her head a little so she now had her face buried into Finn's lap.

"No one hates you here." Finn said quietly, and Rachel felt some of the tears fall down her face and onto Finn's pajama pants. She grabbed onto his shirt, holding onto it tightly as more tears fell down.

"You have to say that; you're my boyfriend. I heard Kurt and Blaine talking, Finn; Kurt doesn't like me. And he said Carole and Burt didn't either; they're just pretending to so you'll be happy. No one likes me; Kurt said I'll be gone by Easter. Easter Finn! He says soon enough you'll have another Santana Lopez, whoever she is, and maybe she'll be a lesbian too, which I don't understand but it doesn't matter." Rachel cried into Finn's legs, and he slowly picked her up in his arms, bringing Rachel closer to his chest so she was completely in his lap. Rachel kissed the crook of Finn's neck, putting her head there.

"Don't listen to a thing Kurt says; he's just not used to you yet. I told you on the way here; it takes a while for Kurt to warm up to people, but he'll realize how awesome you are soon enough. I give until the end of the week before he realizes that you are just like him, but a different sexuality. And Burt and Carole do like you, I know they do. They aren't actors like you Rachel. And as for Santana Lopez, well she's just some dumb ex- girlfriend that I can't be more than happy to be done with, sure she was really hot but…" Finn glanced down at Rachel to see she was glaring at him from his words about Santana's looks, and he backtracked a little on what he was saying, "But Santana or any hot girl other than you doesn't matter to me Rachel. Only you Rachel and you're here to stay, I swear."

Rachel looked up at Finn, sniffling and wiping some of the stray tears away from her cheeks. Finn gently put a hand on her cheek, brushing off some more tears as Rachel looked into his face, looking for maybe something that said he was just saying those things as to not hurt her feelings. But just like Burt and Carole, Finn wasn't an actor either, and everything he was saying was the truth.

"I love you." Rachel breathed out, and Finn smiled as Rachel leaned out of his lap to kiss Finn on the lips. They gently kissed for a while, Rachel letting his love wash over her. Finn's hands went from her hair to Rachel's back, bringing her closer to his body at eye level. She smiled at him.

"I love you too." He said, and Rachel giggled as Finn fell down on the bed, laying on his back as she fell on top of him, kissing Finn's face all over and down his jaw. He groaned in response as Rachel's hand went south and slipped into Finn's pants, holding him and making Finn moan again.

"I also heard Blaine mention that Kurt used to have a crush on you in high school." Rachel mentioned with another giggled as Finn's head rolled back with her hand moving up and down.

"Rachel, thinking about Kurt at a time like this will do the opposite of turn me on." Finn mumbled his eyes closed and his head still back as Rachel put her free hand under Finn's shirt, running her hands on his skin and quickly discarding the shirt from his body.

"I think it's rather obvious that you're already very turned on Finn." Rachel said with a smile, her hand still working in Finn's pants. He moaned again, and Rachel fell against his body completely, giggling into his chest.

"I guess there's no reason to tell you that list now." Finn said with a smirk as he put his hand in the waistband of Rachel's pajama pants, pulling them down to reveal her panties.

"I guess there's not." Rachel confirmed, and she let out another burst of giggles as Finn went on to rid Rachel of her clothes.

"_Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la, la la la la!"_

Breakfast had been alright the day after; Rachel had made the mistake of emptying the coffee pot and getting a glare from Kurt because she didn't know how much longer it took Kurt to get ready in the morning and that he liked to have some coffee too. Rachel thought that it just gave Kurt another reason not to like her, and Finn patted her on the back for support.

"How did you sleep Rachel?" Carole asked when she walked into the kitchen. Rachel caught Finn's eye from the seat next to her, and smiled at him, thinking about the night before.

"I slept well, thank you." She said, taking a sip of her coffee when she felt Finn's foot against her leg. Carole smiled at her, not even noticing her son's actions underneath the table as she took a seat opposite of Finn. Rachel kicked Finn's foot away underneath the table, in which he glared at her from above the table.

"I'm glad you did. I wasn't sure that bed would be big enough for the two of you; Finn never had someone else sleeping there with him before." Carole went on, and Rachel thought that sleeping wasn't really what had happened in that bed last night.

"It was fine; we made it fit, didn't we Finn?" Rachel asked shortly, glancing from Carole to Finn, smiling brightly. This time, it as Rachel leg that rubbed against Finn's, and she put her hand on Finn's seat, between his two legs. From above the table where everyone could see, Finn gave Rachel a bright smile, moving forward a little in his seat so that her hand was pressed against his crotch.

"That's good to hear. So Finn, Kurt, Blaine; Burt and I are going shopping today to pick up some things for the Christmas dinner. Kurt, weren't you talking about that gingerbread house you wanted to make the other day? Maybe the four of you can do that together." Carole said as Burt walked into the kitchen to join the rest of the family in the room. Kurt looked at Blaine in excitement, his eyes wide with gleam.

"Remember I was telling you about that Blaine? Carole, I made an entire diagram just for the gingerbread house. Blaine and I picked up candy on our way here." Kurt said happily, clapping his hands while Blaine grinned back at him. Rachel had never made a gingerbread house before, but she had heard of her friends in grammar school do them and kids on commercials making them, and they always sounded and looked like a lot of fun. Not to mention, they always came out so pretty.

"I've never made a gingerbread house before. It always seems like so much fun though." Rachel said thoughtfully, and Kurt only spared her a glance, turning his attention back to Blaine. Finn wasn't even paying attention to what anyone was saying; Rachel's hand was working against his crotch subconsciously, and it was keeping him pretty content.

"Kurt makes one every year Rachel, I'm sure they would love to have you help them with it this year. Finn does it ever year too, don't you Finn?" Carole asked, turning to Finn, who had his eyes closed and was leaning over the table, not hearing a word his mother way saying.

"Yeah," Finn mumbled and then said some other incoherent words as Rachel gave him a proud smile. Everyone except Rachel gave Finn a weird look as his mouth went into an O shape, and laid his head on his plate, his scrambled eggs sticking to his forehead as everyone kept staring at him.

"Are you okay Finn?" Burt asked unsurely, staying at his spot from the opposite side of the room. He would have said Finn was in pain, but he wouldn't be smiling like that if he was in pain. Very slowly, Finn lifted his head off his plate, a piece of egg falling off his forehead while he did and another piece sticking to his skin.

"I'm great. That was great. I'm great." Finn breathed out, his eyes still closed. Blaine and Kurt exchanged a look while Rachel removed her hand from Finn's chair, sitting up again in her seat. Carole reached for her car keys hanging on the kitchen wall, Burt in tow as she started to walk out of the room.

"We should be back in a couple of hours or so. You guys should do that gingerbread house while we're gone." Carole said, and with a goodbye she and Burt left the house. Kurt and Blaine turned back to Finn, who still looked like he was out of energy while Rachel only smiled at him.

"I think I need to, err, go change my pants. These are, uh, getting a little…uncomfortable." Finn said as he shifted in his seat and his face went red, and then jumping up and running out of the kitchen as fast as he can. Kurt and Blaine turned to Rachel, waiting for some sort of explanation. Rachel looked at the space between the two men, rubbing her hands together uncomfortably.

"I guess he hasn't worn those pants in a while." She said with a smile, and Kurt and Blaine hardly smiled back.

When Finn had put on a fresh pair of pants, breakfast was cleared off the table, and Rachel called Quinn to tell her that she and Finn had made it to the cottage okay (conveniently leaving out the fact that Kurt seemed to hate her for some reason so to not worry Quinn in any way), Kurt pulled out the gingerbread house making kit. It came with the basic things for making a gingerbread house; the walls, and ceiling, vanilla icing, little bags of M&Ms and gumdrops, and a little gingerbread man and woman to go with it. Kurt took out the directions, clearing his throat and unfolding them to read to the three of them.

"It's that time of year again where you pull out the reefs and ornaments; Christmas time! And what else makes Christmas complete then your very own gingerbread house made by you? This gingerbread house is easy to make and fun for everyone in the family; all you need to do is follow these simple rules, and by the time that last gumdrop is put on, you'll have your unique gingerbread house. Blah, blah, blah, skip this part." Kurt said in a formal voice, and then flipped through the pages while Finn pulled apart the walls of the house, looking at each one carefully.

"Okay, so first thing's first, we need to put the icing into," Kurt said, his eyes on the directions while he held up a plastic bag, "this."

"Well, you seem to have a hold of things over here Kurt. I think I'll go put on a Christmas CD for us to listen to." Blaine said, standing up and walking towards the CD player on the kitchen counter. He started going through the pile of CDs sitting next to the CD player, while Rachel opened the plastic bags full of candy, placing them in front of Finn.

"Hey Finn, could you go get the candy bags I brought with me? They're in my bedroom in a plastic bag to the left." Kurt said, struggling to empty the icing into the bag. Finn glanced down at the candy in front of him again, quickly licking his lips, as he stood up and left the room to get the rest of the candy. Seeing that Kurt was having a little trouble with the icing, Rachel sat up more.

"Do you want me to help you with that Kurt? I've baked a lot of cakes before and work with icing all the time." She asked helpfully, but Kurt only glared at her for a moment before going to back to the task at hand. Rachel felt herself shrink in her seat at his glare.

"I can do it myself, thank you very much." He said curtly, ignoring Rachel completely now as he finished emptying the icing, smiling at his work. Finn reentered the room, a large bag in his hand. He sat back down and opened the bag, looking into it with an interested look on his face as he pulled the candy out of the bag. Finn's smile got bigger and bigger with every bag of candy he pulled out.

"Wow Kurt, you really went all out, didn't you?" Finn said as Rachel took a couple of bags of candy and started to tear them open, Finn doing the same. Kurt smiled to himself as he squeezed the icing out of the little hole in the bag, icing gently falling onto the meeting place of the two gingerbread walls.

"I thought the more the better." He responded, and Finn glanced around at everyone, making sure everyone was too busy to notice him pop a gumdrop into his mouth. Rachel started pulling something out of her pocket, and Finn saw that it was a piece of paper folded into a perfect square, and she started to unfold it.

"I hope you don't mind Kurt, but I've written down some ideas for what I want for the gingerbread house. As you know, I've never celebrated Christmas before or made a gingerbread house so I don't know for sure if this is the usual thing you do with gingerbread houses, but I've just been getting so much inspiration for this and I think the ideas are really good ones." Rachel said, pushing the paper in her hand towards Kurt, who didn't even bother to look at it. Rachel bit her bottom lip as she glanced at Finn, who just shrugged while Kurt pushed the paper back towards Rachel.

"Every year Rachel, I write down what I want to do with the gingerbread house, and that's what we do. No changes made." Kurt said quickly, and Rachel slowly took the paper back, looking down at her ideas again before putting them back in her pocket while Finn gave her a sympathetic look. And then Kurt added, "Besides, if your style of gingerbread houses is anything like your style in clothes, I'm saving us all from a huge disaster."

"Kurt, don't you think you're being a little rude to Rachel? There's nothing wrong with her clothes." Finn said to his brother, who just waved his hand at him, ignoring completely what he was saying. Finn sighed loudly, putting his arm around Rachel in silent support as she stared at her lap. He reindeer sweater was cute, not a disaster. Kurt turned to Blaine, who was still going through the CDs.

"Blaine, what are you doing over there? How long does it take to put a CD in?" Kurt asked, and Blaine glanced up at him from the CDs, finally choosing one and putting it in the CD player. The first song started an after a couple of seconds of listening to it, Blaine stopped the song and took the CD out.

"It's all about finding the right music to set the right mood." Blaine said expertly, and Finn rolled his eyes at him as Kurt went back to work. He took the plastic wrapper off a candy cane, and put it in his mouth, the curly side of it sticking out of his mouth.

"It's Christmas, Blaine. Any Christmas music would set the mood." Finn said through the side of his mouth, and took the candy cane back out of his mouth, offering one to Rachel who just shook her head at it.

They went like that for the next half an hour; Blaine couldn't seem to find a CD that he liked best, Kurt focused extra hard to make the gingerbread house look perfect, Rachel longingly stared at Kurt as he worked on the house, every once in a while offering up an idea that Kurt would turn down, and Finn kept opening more candy bags, stuffing the candy into his mouth. By the time Kurt had actually finished putting the house together with the icing, he was tired, but excited to decorate it with the candy.

"What…what happened to all of the candy? I had more than this." Kurt asked, staring up at the half empty bags of candy. Rachel and Blaine turned to look at the half eaten candy while Finn put in another handful of M&Ms into his mouth. Kurt slowly looked up from the candy to Finn, who was now licking his lips clean from the candy cane he had just been eating, getting angrier by the second.

"Finn, how much candy did you eat?" Kurt asked loudly, making Finn drop the candy cane he was holding, and look up at his brother with wide eyes. Rachel looked down at the empty candy bags in front of Finn, realizing how much he had actually ate. "That candy wasn't there for you to eat you pig, it was to make the gingerbread house with!"

Kurt threw an empty bag of candy at Finn, but since it was only air, it fell slowly to the table before it could actually hit Finn's face. Rachel grabbed Finn's hand, stroking his skin gently with her thumb as Finn looked back down at the candy, looking unmoved from Kurt calling him a pig.

"I didn't realize how much I ate. I'm sorry. We still have enough candy for the house." Finn said quietly, pushing the candy that was left towards Kurt. But Kurt kept glaring at him, looking from Finn, to the candy, to Blaine, and then back again.

"No, we don't have enough. I wanted to use the candy canes and Skittles for the sidewalk, but now thanks to you Finn, I don't have those anymore. You and Rachel could go to the supermarket and go pick up more candy now since you decided to eat it all." Kurt went on, and Finn's mouth dropped, Rachel able to see his tongue, which was redder than usual thanks to the Jolly Ranchers he had stuffed into his mouth before.

"But we're like in the middle of nowhere! It's going to take, like, more than an hour to get to the supermarket." Finn said, and Kurt just smirked at him, going over to help Blaine choose a CD already.

"You should've thought about that before you ate all the candy." Kurt said, and Finn huffed loudly as he stood up from his chair, making Rachel stand up too. She watched Finn as he glared at Kurt quickly before turning the other way to get his jacket. Rachel turned to Kurt nervously, her hands shaking a little as she put them in her pockets.

"Finn didn't mean to eat all the candy you know Kurt. We just wanted to help you." Rachel said, and Kurt turned to face her, Blaine looking over his shoulder to see what would happen.

"While I appreciate you standing up for my brother, Rachel, I would appreciate it even more if you went with him to get more candy. That's how you could help me. Oh, and make sure Finn doesn't start stuffing the candy down his throat on the drive back." Kurt says, and with those words, he turns his back on Rachel to help Blaine again, who just gives her a small smile and shrug before turning his attention back to the CD player. Rachel sighed loudly, turning to leave the kitchen and join Finn in the front hall.

It was like no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much Rachel talked to Kurt or tried to help out, he just didn't like her more and more. How was Rachel supposed to marry Finn if Kurt didn't even like her? And worst of all, it now seemed Kurt was getting bitter with everyone who wasn't named Blaine, and Rachel couldn't help but feel like it was somehow her fault. Maybe if she wasn't here, if it was just Finn, Kurt, Blaine, Carole, and Burt like it always seemed to be, Kurt wouldn't be acting so mean. It was Rachel's fault, she knew it was; she was ruining Christmas for everyone. Rachel was just sure of it.

Maybe Christmas with Finn's family wasn't a good idea.

**AN: Tell me in the reviews if you think this fanfic should now be ranted M thanks to this chapter. I'm not sure. **


	4. Oh, Christmas Tree

When Burt and Carole got home later that day, it was to see a beautifully done gingerbread house decorated in pure white, delicious looking icing and different colored candies splayed all over it. Everywhere you went in the kitchen, the scent of gingerbread could be smelled; making you smile as you craved a piece of it. It had been put on top of the fridge just in case Burt or Finn lost control of their hunger for that reason alone. When Carole first saw the house, she grinned and talked about what a wonderful of a job they had done, and no one bothered to tell her that the only person who actually worked on it was Kurt. Rachel and Finn were too busy either rebuying the candy or eating it and Blaine spent the entire time listening to every Christmas song on every CD to help with the house.

By the time Carole and Burt did get home, it was well past lunch time and Carole was talking about some ingredients she had picked up for dinner. Finn and Rachel spent the rest of their afternoon until dinner in front of the fire in the small family room, keeping warm by cuddling and sneaking in a few kisses. Blaine had somehow convinced Kurt to go outside and play in the snow, Kurt telling Blaine the entire time to _not _get his designer winter jacket too dirty, which Blaine ignored entirely as he kept throwing snowballs at him.

Rachel pulled into Finn's chest, relaxing into Finn's body as he ran his hands through her hair. When she closed her eyes with Finn that close, Rachel could forget about how much Kurt didn't like her and how this Christmas wasn't going as great as she planned. It was one of the reasons why she loved Finn so much; he made her forget about all the bad things in her life, and just left all of the good stuff. She couldn't wait until they got married, whenever that was because right now Rachel had no idea when Finn was planning on proposing. It would be soon though, she was sure of it.

"Do you like everyone? Do you like it here?" Finn suddenly asked in a quiet tone as he kept stroking Rachel's hair, looking down at her with soft eyes. Rachel breathed in Finn's scent, gazing up at him with her head on his chest.

"I do like it here. It's nice and quiet; different from New York, but a good kind of different. I've always lived in New York, so I've always been used to the noise and pollution, but this place seems much more natural and surreal. I wouldn't mind living in a place like this." She said, and Finn smiled down at her, very glad to hear this. He didn't realize what her words meant, but she would in the future, and he hoped she liked it.

"You have no idea how great it is to hear you say that Rachel. What about my family? I know they're really different from your dads; they're much louder and there are more people to meet and get along with, and they're all around all the time and everyone knows everyone's business even if it has nothing to do with them." Finn rambled on; thinking about how much more quiet it was at Rachel's house, and how the only thing her dads seemed to get really excited about was Rachel. In his family, Carole and Burt got excited over every little thing; it got kind of irritating after a while.

"I like your family Finn, really I do. I just think Kurt doesn't like me very much and it's ruining Christmas for everyone." Rachel said quietly, and Finn's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. He lightly kissed her forehead, shaking his head.

"No, don't say that. I told you; it's just going to take some time for Kurt to come around, but he will eventually. He just needs to get his head out of his ass and calm down. And you're not ruining Christmas for anyone; Christmas is like this every year." Finn reassured her, and Rachel giggled, deciding to ignore Finn's cursing just this one time, and leaning up to kiss Finn's lips for a moment before pulling away.

"So you're telling me that you eat all the candy every year?" She asked with a smile, and he grinned at her, diving down to give her another deep kiss. He kissed her for a few moments, slightly pulling away to breathe.

"Every single year," Finn growled into Rachel's lips, and she could feel his smile in the kiss.

"_What a bright time, it's the right time, to rock the night away"_

It was after dinner that Finn snuck up to his bedroom, opening the closet and reaching up, looking for the box. Rachel was downstairs with Blaine, singing random Christmas carols after they had both realized their voices sounded wonderful together. Finn thought that no one was upstairs when he took the small box down from the top shelf of the closet, smiling to himself as he slowly took the top off, looking at the antique with a grin on his face. Yes, she would like it very much, Finn was absolutely sure of that now since they talked by the fireplace, and she would like the rest of his plans too.

He was so content with looking at the piece of jewelry, the Finn didn't even notice when Carole silently stepped into the bedroom, watching her son closely. Finn put the lid back on the old box, sighing as he put it back on the old shelf. He wasn't even surprised when Carole made herself known, almost as if he expected her to be standing there.

"You're going to give it to her, aren't you?" Carole asked quietly, and Finn turned to her with a small smile on his face, Carole already knowing the answer. She had known it from the moment she had met Rachel, from the way Finn looked at her. Rachel was different from the other girls Finn had dated; she was staying.

"Is it alright if I use that ring?" Finn asked unsurely, and Carole gave him a reassuring smile. She had given Finn that ring when he was eighteen, telling him that it had been her engagement ring that Christopher, Finn's father, had given her. Carole had warned Finn to not give it to a woman lightly; marriage was a serious thing, and she did not want him to go and get married to some random woman and screw it up. He seemed to have got the point, and Carole knew that he had always been very serious about finding the right girl, and now it seemed he had.

"Of course that's alright. You know that's why I gave it to you." She said, and Finn's smile grew bigger. Carole walked into the room more so she was standing in front of her son, a sad smile on her face. Finn's eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

"Mom, are you crying?" He asked, and Finn could see the tears gathering around Carole's eyes, his mother trying to hold them back. Carole looked down at the floor, then back up again.

"No, I'm fine." She choked out, and before Finn could say anything in return, she had her arms wrapped around him in a tight hug. Finn could feel her tears falling onto his sleeves, but he didn't complain as he patted his mom on the back, having to bend down a little to do so. After a moment of silent crying and hugging, Carol pulled away, clearing her throat and looking Finn in the eyes.

"Rachel is a wonderful girl, and I think she's the one for you. I'm so happy for you Finn." Carole said, smiling genuinely up at him. Finn gave her another hug, smiling to himself when he pulled away. Carole sniffed once, and Finn wondered that if she was crying this much now, how much would she cry at the actual wedding?

"Thanks Mom, for everything." Finn said, and Carole gave him another smile. Just at that moment, Rachel entered the room looking very tired. At seeing Finn and Carole there, Rachel stopped where she was, realizing that she had just interrupted something.

"I'm sorry; I was just going to get ready for bed. I didn't mean to interrupt." Rachel said apologetically, but Carole waved her off. She brushed away the last stray tears so Rachel wouldn't see them and then patted Finn's shoulder, telling Rachel that she hadn't interrupted anything and to have a good night. She walked past her, and left the room, closing the door behind her. Rachel turned to Finn with a concerned face, coming closer to him.

"Is Carole okay? Was it something I did?" Rachel asked, concerned. Finn gave her a reassuring smile, putting his arms around her and bringing Rachel close to his body. She still looked just as worried though.

"Mom's fine; she just wanted to talk to me about something. It wasn't something you did, okay, so stop worrying so much." He told her, and kissed the top of her head to calm her. It seemed to have work, because Rachel's tensed body relaxed against his as he held her.

"I love you." She whispered Rachel's head on his chest. Finn smiled to himself, stroking his hands through her hair, one of his favorite things to do.

"I know, because I love you too." Finn said back, and he held Rachel closer, wondering and hoping that they could just stay like this for the rest of the holiday.

That night, it was harder falling asleep for Finn that night then it was the night before. Part of that reason was for the great lack of sex because Rachel was too worried thinking about how much Kurt didn't like her to do anything physical with Finn, and the other part was that the ring in the closet was heavy in Finn's mind. When would he give it to her and how would he give it to her? Finn was still thinking about that; should he propose to her here in front of his family, or would Rachel want to do it privately just between the two of them? Should he just do it on Christmas or Christmas Eve, but was that very original? Finn just didn't know how this thing usually worked.

The next day, Burt went out to get a Christmas tree, Finn and Rachel tagging along. Rachel had never bought a Christmas tree before, another Hudson- Hummel tradition, and she had been excited to go. Finn was very into it once they got there; looking for the exact right tree, and saying how it had to be sturdy and big and the pines couldn't be falling off every two seconds. Finally, after what seemed like hours to Rachel, Finn came across a good sized tree, the smell of pine drifting off of it. He smiled at the tree and then at Rachel.

"This is the tree Rachel, I know it is." Finn said in a confident voice, and Burt came up from behind them, looking the tree up and down before giving Finn the thumbs up.

"I'll go get one of the workers and they'll help us bring it to the truck." Burt said, and then walked off. If Rachel had known how much of a mess bringing a Christmas tree home would be, she wouldn't have gone to help in the first place with it. She couldn't help but worry about the tree in the back of the truck on the way back to the cottage; the truck kept rumbling and driving over bumpy roads which made the tree shake, and Rachel had this irrational fear of the tree's ropes somehow detaching from the truck, and the tree rolling right off.

Bringing the tree into the house was another story entirely; it was dragged in with towels on the floor so the pine needles wouldn't make such a mess, but the towels didn't help at all. Pine needles covered the hallway floor, and Carole and Rachel had to go over it with a broom while Burt and Finn moved the big, comfy chair in the corner of the room for the tree to go there. Kurt and Blaine were too busy sorting out the ornaments, Kurt going on about how everyone in the family had certain ornaments to hang on the tree. He sorted them out into five groups, everyone else except Blaine ignoring him as he talked away.

"Kurt? Rachel doesn't have a pile." Finn said awkwardly, standing in front of the piles with his hands in his pockets. Kurt looked up from the ornaments at Finn, to Blaine who was untangling the lights, and then to Rachel, who stood behind Finn, biting her lip.

"Well I sorted the ornaments on who they were meant for; first Christmas ones, anniversaries, the cute, handmade, macaroni ornaments we made in first grade. Sorry, but Rachel doesn't have any of those in our box of ornaments, so because of that, she doesn't have her own pile." Kurt said curtly, and Finn glanced at Rachel, sighing loudly. He didn't understand why Kurt was acting like this; it wasn't like Kurt had to be so mean, and Finn knew that he would get along well with Rachel if he just let her in.

"I don't understand why we need to have piles anyway. If I want to put up an ornament from Blaine's pile, I should be able to put up an ornament from Blaine's pile. I shouldn't be limited to just my small pile." Finn argued, and Kurt rolled his eyes, Blaine's eyes going from the Christmas tree lights to Kurt and Finn. Rachel kept quiet, watching the two of them closely.

"This is the way we've been doing it for years, so why would we change tradition now? Just give Rachel some of your ornaments." Kurt said, and the discussion was dropped, neither Finn nor Rachel feeling like arguing with Kurt anymore. When the lights were on the tree, giving off more Christmas cheer, they were able to put the ornaments on the tree. Finn gave Rachel the majority of his pile of ornaments, his pile further away from the others so he and Rachel were more separated from everyone else. They both leaned over the pile, Finn facing Rachel.

"I'm sorry about Kurt. I don't know what's up with him this week. I swear, as time goes by he'll warm up to you, I know he will." Finn said in a low voice, and Rachel bit her lower lip again, thinking the problem was bigger than that. Maybe Kurt wouldn't just warm up to her, no matter how much time Rachel spent around him. The source of the problem was something else, something that had nothing to do with time; it was a Rachel problem. Kurt just didn't like Rachel, and she didn't understand why, but he did. Rachel had to do something about it.

"I think I should talk to him, get down to the point of what this is all about. I think a confrontation is the only way to end this." Rachel said, and Finn nodded in agreement. The rest of the family had already started putting on the ornaments, and it didn't take Rachel very long to put hers up, looking at each one closely. There was a football ornament that Rachel supposed Finn's mom had given him back in high school, an ornament with Finn's band on it, an ornament splattered with different colors that Finn told her he had made himself in the sixth grade. It was nice; it felt like she was getting Finn's life through ornaments from second Christmas all the way to college graduation.

"Well that's embarrassing." Finn said, his face going as red as Santa's coat as Rachel picked up the last ornament in her pile. It was what Kurt had described before; a huge circle framed by different colored macaroni, and in the middle of the ornament was a picture of a small boy in a Star Wars t-shirt, wearing a big smile and showing his teeth, the two front teeth missing.

"Aw, look how cute you were Finn!" Rachel said with a laugh, catching the attention of Carole. She came over from her own ornaments to see what Rachel was looking at, and when she saw it, she grinned.

"Oh Rachel, I have to show the photo albums I have of Finn. He was so adorable as a child! I swear; I don't know how he got this big! I wonder if I have any pictures of him as a child here…." And with those words, Carole was gone and out of the room, going upstairs to search for embarrassing photos of Finn from his childhood.

"I really hope she doesn't find anything." Finn said once Carole was gone, and Rachel smiled at him, hoping differently. She couldn't possibly marry Finn if she hadn't even seen the embarrassing photos of him; photos from childhood were something every relationship had to experience. Finn was still blushing as Rachel looked at the macaroni ornament again, touching it lightly.

"What grade were you in when this was taken?" Rachel asked, and Finn looked at the picture again, thinking hard.

"Uh, I think I was in second grade then. Yeah, I was missing a couple of teeth that year." Finn said, and he pulled the ornament out of Rachel's hand before she could say anything more on it, putting it on the tree himself. He was obviously still embarrassed by it, and Rachel shrugged, not understanding why. She would be more than glad to show Finn all the pictures from her childhood. Just at that moment, Carole came into the room again; her hands empty and a frown on her face.

"I'm sorry Rachel, I couldn't find any here. All the pictures of Finn are already in his room; the rest are back at home on Ohio. You'll have to see them one day when you visit." Carole said apologetically, and Finn let out a sigh of relief. Both Finn and Rachel finished putting up their ornaments quickly after that, Carole busy putting tinsel on the tree.

"You all act like she's staying around forever." Kurt suddenly said, and everyone in the room turned to look at him in shock. Kurt didn't even seemed moved by everyone staring at him, and kept talking, "Finn's girlfriends never stay around too long."

"Kurt, that's really not appropriate to say." Burt said after a short silence, everyone's eyes still on Kurt as he put up another ornament on the tree. He didn't even notice anyone looking at him, going on with his work like everything was just dandy.

"You know it's true." He simply said in response, and Rachel glanced at Finn, who looked like he was trying to hold himself back from throwing a punch at Kurt. Blaine saw the expression on Finn's face, and then walked towards Kurt, telling him that he needed help with something in the kitchen. Without a complaint, Kurt followed Blaine out of the room, leaving Carole to give Rachel an apologetic smile.

"These things take time." She said, and Rachel smiled, knowing that the problem was more than that. It didn't take anyone long to get back to what they were doing before, and Rachel pulled Finn away from Burt and Carole.

"I think I'm going to go talk to Kurt now. Get this over with so we can all enjoy Christmas." She said, and Finn agreed, Rachel silently leaving the room so no one other than Finn would notice her absence. In the kitchen, Blaine and Kurt were leaning over the counter, their heads close together and conversing quietly. From the look on Kurt's face, Rachel couldn't see Blaine's because he was facing away from her, they were talking about something that was getting Kurt annoyed. Not knowing how to make herself known, Rachel cleared her throat once, and Kurt's eyes snapped from Blaine to Rachel, Blaine turning around to see who was there.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to talk to Kurt about something." Rachel said, shifting from one foot to another. Blaine glanced at Kurt quickly, biting his lip as Kurt only slightly shook his head so Rachel couldn't see, but she still caught the slight motion of his head. Ignoring the shake of the head, Blaine nodded at Rachel, saying it was no problem. The look on Kurt's face said that it clearly was a problem as Blaine left the room, leaving Rachel and Kurt in the kitchen with an uncomfortable silence.

"Are you making hot chocolate?" Rachel asked after a moment, coming closer to the counter to see what Kurt was doing. He shifted his eyes from her, looking at the bag of marsh mellows instead. Kurt poured himself a cup of hot chocolate, and then picking up the marsh mellow bag to put a bunch of mini marsh mellows into his mug.

"Yes. Do you want some?" He asked, still not looking at Rachel. Rachel nodded in response and Kurt is still silent as he poured Rachel a cup of hot chocolate. Once she had her cup and had put a respective amount of marsh mellows in it, Rachel sat down at the kitchen table, looking at Kurt expectedly. Having no choice but to join her at the table, Kurt sat down opposite of Rachel with a loud sigh.

"The gingerbread house came out great Kurt; I realized I haven't told you that. You did a really good job on it." Rachel complimented, breaking the silence, looking up at the fridge to see the gingerbread house sitting on the top. Kurt's eyes went from his hot chocolate to the gingerbread house, holding back a smile. Rachel was right; the gingerbread house had come out well.

"Thank you. My gingerbread houses always come out well every year. Blaine thinks it's a little silly to care so much about a gingerbread house, but that's coming from the man who spends an hour looking for the perfect Christmas song to play." Kurt says with a smile, and Rachel giggles in response. Maybe they could get along, if Kurt just accepted her.

"I know you don't like me Kurt." Rachel suddenly said, breaking the somewhat comforting silence, and Kurt's eyes snapped to Rachel's face, his lips in a tight line. She had ruined the friendly moment, and now they were back to that uneasy tension. Kurt stared at Rachel for a couple of seconds, and Rachel stared back, before going on, "You've made it very clear that you don't think much of me and don't expect me to stick around much longer, but I've got something to tell you Kurt. I don't mean to sound rude, so excuse me if I come off that way, but I'm not going anywhere. Finn doesn't want me to go anywhere; he loves me and I love him and that's never going to change. I know that you might think different and not like me, but ultimately, what you think of me doesn't matter in the end because it's Finn's decision. _It's Finn's decision._ I think you and I could be great friends Kurt if you just stopped being so rude to me and started to welcome me to the family instead. Everyone else has so why can't you? Finn's told me lots about you, and from what I hear, you're a Broadway lover and very talented; two things that we both have in common. Something tells me that we would be really good friends Kurt, _if you'd just let me._"

Kurt looked down at his mug after Rachel finished talking, taking a large gulp of the hot chocolate as he tried to digest all of what Rachel had said. She had made her point very clear; that she was here for the long haul, and that she and Kurt should be friends instead of enemies. It was only a matter of Kurt accepting Rachel, and letting her in.

"That's quite the speech Rachel, and I do think it's sweet how much you care about Finn." Kurt said after a pregnant silence. Rachel sipped at her drink, trying to hold back a smile. She was getting somewhere with Kurt; she could feel it. In no time now she and Kurt would be friends and this entire thing could be behind them. "I should let you know that I am not one to easily admit that I was wrong, but I suppose I was. I shouldn't have shut you out so quickly, and I'm sorry about that."

"I accept your apology, and I must say that was much easier than I thought it would be." Rachel said with a smile, letting out a small giggle. She had no idea Kurt would be so willing to forgive, if she had known she would have done this on the first day here. Kurt smiled at her, picking one of the small marsh mellows out of his hot chocolate and popping it into his mouth. "But I have to ask why you didn't like me Kurt? I mean, whenever Finn talked about you, he described you as nice, and accepting, and bubbly. I didn't see any of those characteristics in you when we first met."

"Honestly?" Kurt asks, biting his lip and shyly looking at Rachel, "I was really worried. Finn's past girlfriends haven't been the nicest people in the world; they all seemed to find great joy in mocking and making fun of me. Santana was the worst; she constantly made fun of my sexuality, and bothered Blaine about how much gel he used in his hair. Yeah, I mean I know that Blaine uses a lot of gel, but it's not something that I like Finn's girlfriends to laugh at. They've all been bitches honestly, and they've all thought they could walk all over me. I guess when I met you; I wanted to show you that I'm not someone you could walk all over, so I took a page from Santana's book and became the bitch myself. My plan didn't work very well, did it?"

Rachel gives Kurt a sympathetic smile, gaining so much more respect for him all of a sudden. Kurt was just like her; all her life, people thought they could use Rachel and walk all over her, but they couldn't, and Kurt knew what that was like. He only wanted one of Finn's girlfriends to not bully him, yes he hadn't handled it the right way, but his reasons for acting the way he did were still in the right place.

"I understand Kurt. When I was in high school, I was bullied all the time for the clothes I wore and my ambition. I was different from everyone else in school; I stood out because I loved to sing and write and I was happy to tell anyone who listened that, and I was weird for that. People didn't like me, and they made funny of me. It got so bad in fact that at some point they started throwing slushies at me. It was terrible." Rachel said sympathetically, trying not to remember the feeling of the grape slushy seeping through her blouse and running down her back. Kurt looked at her with big eyes, feeling her pain. He had been bullied too; he knew what she had gone through.

"That's really horrible. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I tried explaining to Finn what my sexuality does to people, how it makes a lot of people immediately hate me and bully me, but he doesn't understand. Finn was the most popular guy back in high school; he didn't have to worry about people picking on him." Kurt said, reminiscing about the teenage Finn and how much more naïve and annoying he had been back then. Yeah, Finn was still completely annoying, but not as much as he used to be. Kurt figured that if Rachel had met Finn when they were teenagers instead of as adults, she would immediately dislike Finn.

"Typical. While Finn was busy being the quarterback of the football team, I was starring in my first lead role as Maria In _West Side Story_." Rachel said with a smirk, and Kurt's eyes went wide with her words. Wait a second; she had played Maria in _West Side Story_? How could Rachel forget to mention that little fact? If she wanted Kurt to like her, all she had to do was say that and Kurt would love her!

"You were Maria? _West Side Story _is one of my favorite musicals ever, after _Les Mis _and _Gypsy_ of course." Kurt said, and Rachel's jaw dropped in surprise.

"Are you kidding me? Anything featuring Barbara Streisand takes the cake; _Les Mis _and _Gypsy _have nothing on _Funny Girl _because of Barbara!" Rachel responded, and then the two of them started talking like they were old friends, their hot chocolates forgotten.


	5. Shared Love

As it turns out, Rachel and Kurt make nothing short of friends. Neither of them would have believed that they had so much in common; not only were they both Broadway lovers, but it turned out Kurt was just as good of a singer as Rachel was, and they spent the rest of the day breaking out into Christmas songs. Rachel was even more surprised when Kurt was somehow able to push Finn into singing a duet with Rachel, and he surprisingly didn't sound so bad himself. She found herself sad to not be able to sing another song with Finn when Kurt insisted that him and Blaine should sing a duet, and they impressed both Finn and Rachel with their own version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside".

Before Rachel knew it, the day had gone by and time seemed to go a lot quicker now that everyone seemed to be getting along. Now that Kurt had let his guard down and had started to become friends with Rachel, everyone else seemed to relax greatly. Burt was suddenly talking so much more, and one time, Rachel actually came across finding Burt alone in the kitchen while he sang quietly to himself. Yes, the holiday of Christmas was finally starting to feel like the wonderful experience that Rachel had always dreamed of. Christmas decorations all over the house, the tree glowing every night, snow falling all through the day, and snowmen, reefs, mistletoe, and love everywhere. Christmas in Canada was starting to look like Christmas in one of those classic holiday movies. And Rachel had Finn to thank for it.

"Hey Rachel, can you come over here for a moment? I have to show you something." Finn called to Rachel on Christmas Eve from the family room. Rachel was in the living room with Kurt, watching _The Phantom of the Opera _and having a mini Broadway marathon when Finn asked for her. Telling Kurt not to bother with stopping the movie for her, she made her way to the family room where Finn stood in a green and red flannel shirt, smiling brightly at Rachel.

"What was so important that you had to show me?" Rachel asks, looking around the room as if expecting something to come out and surprise her. But Finn just kept smiling at Rachel, coming towards her quickly.

"You'll see in a minute, just stand right…there." He said, as he took hold of her shoulders, and shifted Rachel so she was standing in the same spot Finn had just been standing. She looked around her again, expecting something to finally make sense to her, but Finn just stood closely in front of her, grinning.

"What are we doing Finn?" She asked with a giggle, and Finn looked up slowly at the ceiling, Rachel's eyes following. She lets out another giggle as her eyes spotted what was hanging above her and Finn, and she slapped his chest playfully. "I can't believe you!"

"Wow; I didn't even realize that was there, weird, huh?" Finn asked in a mockingly shocked tone, looking from the mistletoe to Rachel with a slight smile on his face. Grinning, Rachel reached up to put her arms around Finn's neck, bringing him closer so their faces were only inches away, Rachel on her tippy toes.

"You are so sneaky." She says, and the way Rachel said it made it sound like bad thing, but it was easily forgotten when she presses her lips against Finn's, kissing him deeply. Rachel's mouth allowed Finn's tongue entrance after a couple of seconds of kissing, and Finn got lost in the kiss even more, touching a hand to Rachel's soft hair, massaging her head. He sighed into the kiss, feeling Rachel's tongue against his lip, the hand that wasn't busy in the hair made its way down to her lower back. When breathing was necessary, Rachel pulled away, breathing heavily.

"I love you so much." Finn sighed, moving his face into Rachel's hair, breathing in her scent. She sighed as well as Finn's mouth attached to the skin on her neck, kissing and licking there. "But I do have a real surprise for you."

"Do you really? When do I get this surprise?" Rachel whispered, hoping that the surprise was the ring. It would make sense, wouldn't it? What other surprise would Finn talk about? She felt him smile against her skin, suddenly pulling away from her.

"You'll find out soon enough." He said with a grin, and with those words, Finn was gone from the room while Rachel digested what had just happened, her lips swollen and a conspicuous mark on her neck.

"_Do you hear what I hear, A song, a song, High above the tree, With a voice as big as the sea"_

If Rachel wasn't quiet about what she was doing, someone would easily hear her and come to see what she was doing. And Rachel couldn't have that, so she slowly and quietly opened the door to Finn's bedroom, peaking inside. Finn was downstairs watching _The Christmas Story _so she didn't have to worry about him suddenly coming up.

Where was she supposed to start with her search? Rachel picked up Finn's clothes on the floor from the day before, checking the pockets and dropping them with a loud sigh when she realized they weren't in there. Next was the dresser, which Rachel combed clean in a matter of five minutes, opening and closing all the drawers and ruffling things around as she looked for the small box. If she was an engagement ring where would she be? She checked under the bed, where a bunch of boxes were put. Eagerly, Rachel pulled the boxes out, taking the lids off and disappointed to see that the only thing in the boxes were scarves, gloves, and hats.

Rachel pushed the boxes back under the bed, looking around the room again as she sat down on the floor. She was getting tired of waiting for Finn to just pop the question already; she needed to see the ring now. All this time Rachel had only guessed it was an engagement ring Finn was planning on giving her Christmas day, but now she was surer than ever that it was a ring after Finn had told her he had a surprise for her, and it increased her impatience. Rachel was anything but patient when it came to big surprises for herself, and this was one she couldn't wait any longer for. But the ring seemed to be nowhere…but that closet sure did look inviting to check.

She pushed herself off the wooden floor, opening the closet door and looking into the small closet. Rachel pushed past the hanged up shirts, and rummaged through the shoes and socks on the floor, but the ring was nowhere in sight. Her eyes drifted up towards the high shelf of the closet, sweatshirts and sweaters stored up there. The ring _had _to be up there; where else would Finn keep it? Rachel reached up to take the things down from the shelf, but her hand stopped an inch away from the shelf, unable to reach any farther.

Biting her lip and trying to not let out a cry of frustration, Rachel stood on the very tip of her toes like she sometimes had to do when kissing Finn, and tried to stretch out her arm even more, but she only touched the edge of the shelf, still not close enough to get the things on the shelf down. This time, Rachel actually did let out a low whimper as she walked over to the small desk in the room, pushing the chair towards the closet. She stood on top of the chair, glad to see that she was now eye level with the shelf, and could see all the contents on it. Right on top of a red sweater sat exactly what she was looking for; a black, velvet box. Rachel was almost too excited to pick it up.

Grabbing the box with a new burst of energy, Rachel jumped off the chair and sat down on the bed. She held the box with both of her hands, focusing in on it. What would the ring look like? Was this wrong of her, sneaking around to see her engagement ring before Finn could give it to her? Even if she already knew about the ring, wasn't it still right that Finn should see her face the first time Rachel saw the ring? Yes, that was the right thing to do. Rachel couldn't look at the ring until Finn proposed; it would be wrong of her to do otherwise. Sighing loudly, Rachel stood up and stood back up on the chair, putting the box back where she had found it.

As she put the ring back, Rachel's eyes caught onto something else. Another box was sitting in the corner of the shelf wrapped in green and red wrapping paper. Curiously, Rachel picked it up to take a closer look at it, and realized with shock that it was the exact same shape and size of the box with the ring in it. This didn't make any sense; if Finn had two small boxes to give her for Christmas, which box had the ring in it? And what was the other box for? Which box held the engagement ring in it? This made no sense!

"Rachel? Are you up here?" Finn's voice drifted through the bedroom, and Rachel quickly threw the wrapped up box back in the corner of the closet shelf, jumped off the chair, pushed the chair back by the desk while scraping the floor accidentally, and sat down on the bed, trying to catch her breathe. Finn came in one second after Rachel sat down, looking around the room before laying his eyes on Rachel, an eyebrow raised. "Are you okay? You look tired."

"Yeah, I just lost something, but then I found it." Rachel lied, and Finn smiled at her, his eyes still on Rachel. But that didn't mean she missed the quick glance he had given the closet.

"Good. Mom says dinner is ready." Finn said, and Rachel got off the bed and took Finn's hand, letting him lead her downstairs for Christmas Eve dinner.

Christmas Eve dinner seemed more special than a regular dinner in the Hudson-Hummel cottage. Everyone seemed much happier tonight, candles lit on the table, an assortment of food to choose from, smiles everywhere. Rachel's hand didn't leave Finn's for a moment during dinner, her thumb gently stroking his skin. Kurt and Blaine spent the entire dinner talking about their wedding in the summer, a topic Kurt thought was something he should started thinking about more seriously. They hadn't made a big deal out of it recently because they wanted to wait for everyone to know about it first, but now that everyone was aware of it now; Kurt could finally start planning it.

"And I don't want to keep the party too big, but not too small either. I don't think a lot of my friends are going to be able to come since it's going to be in New York, but we do still have a lot of family between the two of us." Kurt was saying, and Carole and Burt just nodded, listening quietly. Every once in a while, Blaine would add something to what Kurt was saying, but Kurt did most of the talking. Rachel couldn't focus on the conversation; she was too busy spending the time dreaming about her and Finn's wedding… after he proposed of course, whenever that was.

"You seemed to have enjoyed the dinner Finn. Were you hungry?" Carole asked once they were done, seeing that her son's plate was scraped clean. Finn looked up from his plate, licking his lips clean of the chicken juice.

"Yeah, it was really good." He said, and Carole had Burt help her clean off the table. Rachel didn't know what happened after this; did they just go to bed or did Finn's family have some sort of Christmas Eve tradition? She stood up from her seat, standing awkwardly in the corner of the dining room as she waited for someone to do something.

"I'm going to go get my gifts to put them under the tree. Rachel, do you want to join me?" Finn asked as everyone else finished cleaning off the table. Rachel looked up at him, thinking that this might be the moment that Finn proposed. Well why not? It was Christmas Eve after all, and Finn did have her ring hiding in his closet, and whatever that other box had inside of it. Maybe now would be the time Finn was thinking of giving it to her, well at least Rachel hoped so.

"Sure." She said, following Finn out of the room and upstairs to his bedroom. When up there, Finn opened his closet, and Rachel tried to keep her excitement under control as she went over to her suitcases to get the gifts that she got for Finn's family out. He must have been getting out her engagement ring, what else could he be getting out? Rachel slowly turned to face Finn, trying to hide the grin on her face as he pulled out a small stack of Christmas presents.

"Are one of those for me?" Rachel asked, coming over to get a closer look at the pile of gifts. But neither of the two small boxes were there, but Finn was probably hiding it somewhere on him so Rachel didn't find out about it; too bad that surprise had been ruined.

"You bet." He said, and then picked up the pile, hardly even looking at Rachel as he walked past her and left the room. Wait a second; this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Finn just wasn't supposed to waltz in, get his gifts, tell her "you bet" in that casual tone and then leave her there. No. No! He was supposed to propose to her, Finn was supposed to get on one knee and ask Rachel to marry him. That was how this was supposed to happen. That was how it was going to happen…soon. It had to happen soon, it just had to.

After a long moment where Rachel contemplated exactly when Finn was going to ask her to marry him, because he was going to do it soon, she knew that, Rachel left the bedroom with her gifts. Finn must have been planning to propose tomorrow, on Christmas. Yes, that must have been it! It made the most sense anyway! What would be more romantic then asking the woman you love to marry you on one of the most wonderful days of the year? It was the perfect plan really; Rachel just had to wait until then.

"You're going to burn yourself Blaine if you do it like that." Kurt warned when Rachel entered the family room, Blaine bending over the fireplace. He ignored Kurt as he finished lighting the fire, and then joined him on the loveseat. Finn was sitting in the comfy armchair, looking tensed with his elbows on his knees, his eyes focusing in on the fire. Rachel could see the red reflection of the fire in his eyes, his face set in a straight line, and she wondered what was wrong with him. Rachel put her gifts under the tree, and then sat down next to him on the less comfortable armchair, watching Finn closely and lightly touching his leg. Finn didn't even notice her, his mind somewhere else.

"Finn, are you alright? You seem worried." Carole said, voicing Rachel's thoughts. Finn hardly moved his head to look at his mother, his attention still obviously somewhere else.

"Yeah, I'm fine; just thinking." He said quickly, and then went back to looking at the fireplace. Carole looked at Rachel and shared a curious look as Burt joined Carole on the sofa. A peaceful silence filled the room as Finn seemed to relax in his seat, sighing loudly and sitting back in the comfy chair.

"So are we going to give one another one gift like we do every year?" Burt asked, breaking the silence. Rachel wasn't sure if that was something all families did (she was pretty sure you weren't supposed to open any gifts until Christmas morning), but maybe it was something only Finn's family did. Either way, getting a gift now didn't sound so bad.

"Oh yeah, let's do that before we forget." Carole said, and Kurt explained to Rachel that each person gave their significant other one gift on Christmas Eve, a tradition started by Kurt's grandparents. Finn nudged Rachel's shoulder after Kurt finished explaining what to do.

"A tradition I know better as that moment where you're horribly reminded that you're single. Speaking of which, that means I get one gift from everyone tonight since I was always left out of this 'significant other' thing." Finn told Rachel, and then turned to the rest of the family with a satisfied smile. He seemed to be thinking that this Christmas was like every other Christmas where Finn was single, and so got pity from the rest of the family on Christmas Eve in gift form. Carole gave him a knowing look.

"Not anymore you don't Finn, not with Rachel here." Carole told him, and Finn's mouth dropped in surprise. This would be the first Christmas where he only received one gift on Christmas Eve instead of four. Rachel giggled at his expression, and Kurt said that it was about time Finn got the same amount of Christmas presents as everyone else.

"What? _What is this?_" Finn asked no one in particular in a sing song voice. Kurt and Blaine exchanged presents as Carole and Burt did the same, Rachel holding hers out for Finn to take. After a moment where Finn got over the small shock of fewer gifts, he took Rachel's present gratefully and reached down under the Christmas tree to take out Rachel's. He handed her a medium size gift, and Rachel knew that this couldn't be the engagement ring. It was far too big to be that.

"Oh, thank you so much Blaine!" Kurt said happily, smiling at the small bottle of moisturizer in his hands and then pulling Blaine forward for a kiss. Rachel directed her attention back to her own gift, not having opened it yet, and tearing it opened to see what Finn had gotten her.

"It's so soft." She noted quietly as Rachel took the beige sweater into her hands, and ran her hands over the cashmere slowly. Rachel really wasn't one for expensive cashmere, but she had been looking at this specific sweater at the mall for a while now, and Finn knew that. "I've been hoping to get this. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I saw you looking at it that one time at the mall, and so I decided buy it for you." Finn explained, and Rachel smiled at him, kissing his cheek lightly before Finn started opening his gift. He tore open the small gift, and smiled when he pulled out the silver watch.

"Nice. I needed a new one." Finn said appreciatively, and kissed Rachel in thank you. Once everyone had opened their one gift, Carole announced that she was getting tired and after wishing everyone a good, peaceful night and a Merry Christmas, Carole and Burt left to go upstairs and sleep. Kurt and Blaine looked at Finn and Rachel after they had left, Blaine pursing his lips together in thought.

"I'm bored. Do you guys want to go build a snowman before bed?" Blaine asked, and Rachel raised an eyebrow at him. Why would she go out at this time, ten thirty for that matter, in the darkness and build a snowman? Wasn't it a little late to do that, but Rachel looked around and saw that no one else seemed to have a problem with making a snowman at this time of night.

"Sure. Let me just go get my coat." Finn said, and he left the room, Rachel following after a moment. She got her winter coat and put in on, Blaine and Kurt already at the front door with their coats and hats on. Kurt opened the door, peeking out at the darkness, and then he was gone, Blaine following. Rachel looked at Finn a little unsurely, and he only shrugged at her until he was out the door too. Rachel found that even if she didn't want to go outside, she had no choice anyway.

Outside, Finn, Kurt, and Blaine were on the front lawn looking at the snowman Kurt and Blaine had made a couple of days ago. They were talking quietly as Rachel came up to them, her hands shoved in her pockets, and her nose slowly going red from the cold.

"Yeah, now that I think about it I don't really want to build another snowman." Blaine said after a long moment where they all just stared at the snowman. Kurt nodded in agreement, and Blaine started walking back to the front door, Kurt in tow. Finn went to stand next to Rachel, smiling evilly down at her. Before Rachel could wonder what was up with him, Finn had bent down to pick up a pile of snow, patting it together into a ball. Rachel held in a giggle as Finn examined the ball of snow, a satisfied grin on his face. Just as Blaine was about to open the door, a snowball went flying across the lawn and hit Blaine right in the back of his head. Both Finn and Rachel burst out in laughter as Blaine stopped walking, and slowly turned to face them.

"You did not just do that." Blaine said in a hard voice, Kurt turning around to see what had happened. His eyes went wide when he realized, and Kurt tried to hold back laughter for Blaine's sake. Finn only shrugged, Rachel giggling next to him.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." Finn said with a smirk, and Rachel was reminded of when they went shopping a couple of days before coming to the cottage when Finn had said something similar to her in a more teasing tone. Blaine sighed loudly in response, and then bent down to pick up some snow himself. He had done it so quickly that no one really saw the action of it, but then Blaine had thrown a snowball at Finn, hitting him right in the face. Blaine and Kurt laughed while Rachel helped Finn clean the snow off his face.

"You're going to pay for that!" Finn warned, and then another snowball was being thrown and all four of them were running for cover. Rachel threw herself behind a bush, patting the snow together into a ball. She looked over the bush, a snowball flying through the air and Kurt running across the lawn. She could just see Finn's head peeking around a tree, and taking the chance, Rachel sat up a little more, aimed, and threw. It hit the tree instead of Finn, but he did notice it and ran to a different hiding spot.

They went like that for the next hour; having a snowball fight and running around the lawn like kids. Once Rachel was completely out of breathe, snow running down her shirt and the end of her pants wet, she let herself fall into the snow face first, feeling the coldness against her face.

"You're out." Finn said above her, throwing one last snowball at Rachel's back, and then helping her get back up. Kurt threw one last snowball at Finn before following Blaine inside, both soaked in snow. Rachel grunted as Finn pulled on her arms and helped her get on her two feet again. Once she was up, Finn quickly put his arm around her shoulders, helping Rachel walk towards the front door. She wasn't used to extreme snowball fights, in fact, Rachel wasn't used to snowball fights period.

"Okay, we're going to bed. Goodnight Finn, goodnight Rachel, merry Christmas." Kurt said once the four of them were in the house and up the stairs. Finn and Rachel said their goodnights and then Rachel flopped down on Finn's bed, sighing. Finn chuckled as he fell on the bed next to Rachel, removing his completely wet socks.

"I'm so tired." Rachel said uselessly, and Finn took it upon himself to strip Rachel of her wet clothes, gently putting her pajamas on. Once he did, Rachel pushed her body up the bed while Finn got changed himself and tucked herself under the covers. She closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep when Rachel felt someone shifting on the bed, and then a warm body surrounding her, big arms engulfing her, and bringing her body closer to his. Rachel reopened her eyes with a small smile on her face.

"Thank you." He whispered into her ear, ticking Rachel's skin. Her smile grew bigger as Finn lightly kissed her neck, and she wondered what Finn was thanking her for. She should be the one thanking him; it was Finn after all who had brought her here to meet his lovely family and give her first real Christmas experience.

"Thank _you_. This had been the best Christmas ever." Rachel said with a smile, and Finn grinned in response. Christmas technically hadn't even happened yet, and Rachel was already saying it was the best. Finn really did love her, and he was more sure in that moment than ever before that he wanted to marry this woman, and he was going to, Finn knew that much.

"I love you." He said, and at those last words, Rachel's eyes fluttered closed, and he wondered if she had even heard what he had just said, but it didn't matter either way. Rachel knew he loved her already.

**AN: Finn's line, "**_**What is this?"**_** is a shout out to a different Christmas movie. If you think you know the movie, say it in the reviews because I'm interested to know if anyone was able to pick up on that. **


	6. Best Christmas Ever

Snow gently fell onto the window sill, adding to the large pile of white snow that was already sitting there. In that one moment, the weight of the snow seemed to be too much and the pile of snow collapsed, falling off the window sill and falling onto the ground with a light "thump". Meanwhile on the other side of the window, Rachel slept peacefully, Finn's body curled around hers and a small smile on her face. There was a small rustling in the bed as the sunlight made Finn open his eyes, blinking a couple of times to make his vision clearer. Rachel sighed happily as she kept on sleeping, Finn bringing one of his arms from around Rachel to rub at his eyes, staring at the snow falling outside. It took him one second after waking up to remember what day it was.

"Rachel." He said in a loud whisper, shaking Rachel's shoulders gently. Rachel took her sweet time opening her eyes and looking up at Finn with a tiring expression. It didn't faze Finn's happiness though.

"It's too early in the morning for this Finn. Go back to sleep." Rachel grumbled, clearly not realizing what day it was. Finn didn't listen to her as Rachel closed her eyes again, nestling closer to her pillow. Finn shook her again, ignoring Rachel's efforts to fall back to sleep.

"Don't you know what day it is today? It's Christmas!" Finn said with a grin, and Rachel slowly opened her eyes, looking up at him. Rachel stared at Finn for another moment before what he was saying started to actually sink in. Her eyes went wide when it did, a smile appearing on her face and sitting up, suddenly awake.

"Today's Christmas, merry Christmas!" Rachel said cheerily, and then tackled Finn onto his back and started kissing him everywhere. Finn didn't even get a word in, but didn't care because soon Rachel was stripping herself of her clothes while Finn did the same, glad to receive his Christmas sex. Maybe it would even be better than there Hanukah sex, and that was saying something.

"_Faithfull friends that are dear to us, gather near to us once more."_

The knock on the door snapped Rachel and Finn out of their little world, snuggled closely together on the bed. Rachel instantly grabbed her clothes on the bed, throwing the matching pajamas on. Finn did the same as Kurt's voice rang through the door, sounding happy and cheery.

"Merry Christmas you two! Time to get up!" Kurt said, and Rachel shoved her shirt on and made sure that Finn was dressed appropriately too before taking a deep breath and opening the door to see Kurt standing there with a grin on his face. Kurt's smile grew even wider when he saw Finn and Rachel there, and Rachel returned it, hoping that he couldn't tell that she and Finn had just been sexed up.

"Merry Christmas to you too Kurt! Finn and I were just-", Rachel stopped what she was saying and turned from Kurt to Finn, trying to think of something her and Finn could have been doing all this time that didn't include the s-e-x word. Kurt raised a knowing eyebrow at them while Finn thought of a lie for him and Rachel to use.

"I know what you guys were doing, so there's no need to make up a lie. I'm not an idiot you know." Kurt said, and Rachel's face went bright red, matching Finn's just as red face. Kurt gave them an a awkward smile, feeling uncomfortable now that he knew for sure what they had been doing only a couple of minutes before he knocked on the door. Finn was the one who broke the silence.

"Okay, so we'll just meet you and the rest of the family downstairs." Finn said after a moment, and glad to have a reason to leave, Kurt left as quickly as possible, closing the door behind him. Rachel and Finn exchanged looks, her giving him a one sided smile. Finn stared at her for a silent second before breaking out into laughter, Rachel joining him. They laughed for a couple of seconds of how awkward but secretly funny that scene had just been, and then Rachel waved her hands in the air as if signaling the laughter to stop.

"We should go downstairs and join everyone so they don't get suspicious." Rachel said after the laughter had died out, and Finn could only imagine Kurt telling everyone about what had just happened in here. He wasn't looking forward much to seeing his parents after they found out about that.

"Yeah, I just hope Kurt won't make too big of a deal about what had just happened." Finn said, and he followed Rachel into putting their robes on and then leaving the room. The second floor seemed empty from other then the two of them, and their footsteps could be heard from downstairs.

"I don't think Kurt will mention this again. He might make things more dramatic than needed most of the time, but I think this is one of those things he's going to try to forget about." Rachel said as they stepped off the stairs and walked into the family room where everyone was sitting around the glistening Christmas tree, presents under the tree and Christmas music gently playing in the background. Carole and Burt immediately stood up and went over to hug Finn and Rachel good morning.

"Merry Christmas Finn, merry Christmas Rachel!" Carole said as she hugged each of them, a grin on her face. Rachel was a little surprised when Carole put a kiss on her cheek, looking at her in a motherly way, something that Rachel wasn't used to, but welcomed all the same. Burt gave her a warm hug, which she took gratefully, and then Blaine wished her a "Merry Christmas" with a hug and smile. After everyone had said their "Merry Christmas" and had asked if everyone slept well and what they did after Burt and Carole had went to sleep, Carole laughing at the story of the snowball fight, the six of them all sat down, circling the Christmas tree and the gifts.

"Err, this is Blaine's." Finn said, going through the gifts and separating them into piles for each person. Rachel wondered what was with this family and separating everything into piles, but found that it didn't really bother her all that much. Finn and Burt kept separating the presents, Rachel surprised to see that she had a pile of gifts just as big as Blaine's; she wasn't expecting that many presents. Rachel was so surprised by how many gifts she was getting that it took her an extra moment to see that Finn had put a small, wrapped up box on top of her pile, a slight smile on his face.

This was the same box she had found in his closet; not the velvet black box that had been in the center of the top shelf, but the one that was wrapped in Christmas paper and had been sitting in the corner of the shelf. Rachel had been sure that the engagement ring had been the one in the black box, but that box was nowhere in sight, and Rachel started to think that maybe this wrapped up box had the ring in it. It would make sense; Finn to propose to her on Christmas morning with his entire family watching them. Rachel suspected it to be on Christmas morning; what was more romantic then Christmas anyway (though she still thought that Christmas Eve would have been much more romantic), but Rachel didn't expect it to be like this.

She had always thought that when Finn proposed, he would do it in private so it was just the two of them. Yeah, he loved his family and Rachel loved them too, but he wasn't the kind of guy to do something as intimate as asking your girlfriend to marry you in front of his parents. Finn seemed like the kind of guy who did marriage proposals at quiet times where it was just the two of them probably while eating Chinese food or something, not the kind of person who would flash around the ring for everyone to see during the proposal itself. But nonetheless, Rachel would accept anywhere Finn decided to propose to her, as long as he did.

"Are you actually going to open your gifts or just stare at them?" Finn asked, breaking Rachel of her daze and thoughts about the small box in front of her. Her head snapped up to look at Finn, who was smiling shyly at her, and looking from Rachel to the small present from him.

"Yes. I'm sorry; I guess I just blanked out for a second." Rachel said, and looked around to see that everyone else had already started opening their presents, Blaine giving Kurt a kiss as a thank you for the new bow-tie he had gotten him. She reached for the top present, the small one from Finn, but Finn's hand reached out, stopping Rachel from picking up the gift.

"No, that one's from me. I want you to open it last." Finn said with a smile, and Rachel shrugged as she took the present from underneath the small one. That must have been the engagement ring then, if Finn wanted her to open it last. What would be the point of her opening it now and having nothing to look forward to for the rest of the gift opening? No, it made sense that she should open the ring last, as some sort of finale. It just seemed more traditional for her that way.

Rachel was happy with the rest of her presents; the CD soundtrack of _Les Mis _from Kurt, a pretty heart shaped necklace from Carole and Burt, a new skirt that Rachel was surprised she liked so much from Blaine, and Finn had even got Quinn and Puck's gift from home to come up here without Rachel knowing, which was an antique typewriter. Rachel was surprised to see it, but just as much as she was excited; she had always wanted to use a typewriter before, and according to the note attached to the gift, Quinn and Puck were both aware of this and knew they had to get it for her when they saw it in an antique shop. Her dads had even sent something to Finn for Rachel to open on Christmas morning (which was really weird once Rachel considered the fact that they had never given her a Christmas gift before, but then again Rachel had never celebrated Christmas until now), and they had sent her homemade candies, something her daddy had a talent for making. Finally, the only present left in Rachel's pile was Finn's gift, which she was more than ready to open. Rachel had been waiting for this moment all week!

Taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself for what was about to happen, Rachel reached for the small box, a sudden burst of excitement taking over her. This was it! Rachel had always imagined ever since she was a little girl what it would be like when the love of her life asked for her hand in marriage, and now it was about to happen. Her years of fantasizing about it was now completely coming true, and Rachel couldn't wait to spend the rest of her life with Finn as her husband! This was it; that fantasy of hers was officially starting to become her reality!

"Oh, you're opening mine now, awesome!" Finn said with a grin when he noticed that Rachel had picked up the small box that held the ring inside of it. He put down the new symbol Carole had gotten his for his drum set to closely watch Rachel open the present. Biting her lip and trying to keep her excitement under control, Rachel delicately untied the blue bow on the box and slipped it off, staring at the wrapping paper for a moment before tearing it off.

Finn watched her with an intent look on his face. Rachel looked up at him once more before taking the wrapping paper off the gift, giving him a small smile, which Finn returned. She thought he looked a lot calmer for a proposal than expected.

She threw the wrapping paper on the floor, a surge of energy running through her as Rachel quickly took off the lid of a velvet black box, identical to the other box in Finn's closet, and for one moment Rachel wondered what this ring would look like. Finn wasn't the kind of guy to get her a flashy, big diamond ring, and that wasn't what Rachel wanted anyway. She wouldn't feel comfortable with this huge weight on her finger all of the time. No, Finn had probably got her a subtle, small diamond but still beautiful ring. Rachel prepared herself in that last moment before opening the box to see the ring, and her imagination had already came up with how it would look. Her eyes landed on the jewelry inside, and Rachel's throat closed up. Rachel could literally feel her heart dropping to the bottom of her stomach.

"Do you like it?" Someone said in the distance, sounding like an echo in a tunnel. Rachel couldn't take her eyes off of it; it felt like it was literally _staring _at her, silently mocking her. She couldn't talk; her mouth wouldn't open, and even if it did, nothing would come out because Rachel couldn't think of words. This was just…there was nothing to say about it. This was everything that it _wasn't _supposed to be; this was anything but Rachel's fantasies. This seemed like something out of a girlfriend's worst nightmare, hell, it was a nightmare.

This was terrible.

This was unacceptable.

No. No. _NO!_

"No." Rachel said softly, repeating the word that kept going through her head. Finn's eyebrows pulled together in confusion; he was worried that this meant Rachel didn't like his gift. He was sure she would.

"Wait, you don't like it? I saw it that time in the mall when we went Christmas shopping before we left for here, and I immediately thought of you when I saw it. It just says _Rachel Berry_, don't you think so?" Finn said, and his voice became clearer in Rachel's head. She could finally comprehend what was happening and that there was a not engagement ring in the small little box, but an unfortunate pure gold star keychain. Well, it wasn't like Finn had gone totally cheap on her this year.

"No, I…do like it." Rachel stuttered out, her eyes never leaving the keychain. Finn gave a half smile, something Rachel did not see because she was too busy looking at the keychain. She wasn't sure if she looked like she liked it; Rachel was a little bit too torn up about the absence of the ring to actually appreciate the keychain.

"Then why are you crying?" Finn asked with concern in his eyes. Rachel then noticed that Finn was right; she did have tears in her eyes. Maybe she was a worse actress then Rachel had originally thought; she couldn't even stop crying.

"They're tears of joy." Rachel whimpered, knowing that it was a pathetic lie, but hoping Finn wouldn't push the topic. He seemed to not have believed her, but the moment had past and now Finn wore a smile, knowing that Rachel didn't want to talk about it right now, and left himself a mental note to talk about it with her later.

"I'm glad you like it." He said, looking from Rachel to the expensive keychain. Rachel nodded in agreement; yes, she remembered now. The key chains had been right next to the rings, and Rachel had only assumed that Finn had bought her a ring when he was really buying her a keychain. Dammit, how could she have been so foolish to think that Finn would propose to her on Christmas day? Christmas day wasn't romantic, proposing on Christmas day was just plain cheesy!

"I do; it is very me. Gold stars are my thing, you know." Rachel said with a smile, some of the fresh sadness diminishing. The aftermath sadness was to come later that day. "You spoil me too much."

"I don't spoil you; I just adore you." Finn said back with a bright smile, and with a giggle Rachel reached out to give him a hug and kiss. So if Finn wasn't planning on proposing to her (just the thought of no engagement ring hurt Rachel's heart), what was the other small box in his closet for? That was probably some more jewelry, like a nice necklace or something that Finn was no doubt going to give to Rachel at the end of the night. He did those kind of things; surprised her with gifts at times where Rachel least expected it.

"Thank you." Rachel whispered into the kiss, because it wasn't like Finn hadn't given her anything for Christmas. He just didn't get what Rachel was looking most forward to; engaged to be married to him. Rachel pulled away from the kiss as Finn thanked her for what she had gotten him (the new Assassins Creed video game which Finn practically jumped up and down for when he opened it), and gave the star a closer look. It was rather beautiful; Rachel wasn't sure how many carats of gold it was, but she could tell that it was a good few.

The rest of the morning went just fine, the absence of no engagement ring always lingering on Rachel's mind. She found herself watching Finn closely during breakfast (homemade, warm pancakes made by Carole), wondering why Finn didn't want to marry her anyway. They loved each other, and Finn had made it obvious many times that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Rachel, but why wasn't he asking her to marry him? It was frustrating really; Finn knew that he wanted to marry Rachel, but he still wouldn't propose to her! Why wouldn't he propose?

"A toast, to Rachel!" Burt announced in the beginning of breakfast, standing with his fresh orange juice and smiling down at Rachel. Everyone else followed and held up their glasses, every pair of eyes moving from Burt to Rachel, Finn smiling proudly. Rachel smiled shyly, a blush creeping upon her face. "It has been a joy having her with us this Christmas, and I wish for many more Christmases to come!"

"To Rachel," Everyone chimed in together, and they all took a sip of their orange juice, Rachel smiling to herself. She was sure that there was going to be more Christmases to look forward to with Finn's family, but now she wasn't so sure if there was a marriage to look forward to as well, other than Blaine and Kurt's of course.

"I just want to thank you all for being so welcoming to me. I was so nervous about meeting Finn's family, and I thought you would all hate me, but now I realize there was nothing to worry about." Rachel said, and Finn took her small hand into his, intertwining their fingers above the table for the family to see. Carole smiled warmly at Rachel's words.

"Well we thought about hating you but decided that took too much effort." Burt joked, and Rachel laughed, glancing at Kurt quickly before looking back at Burt. Kurt popped in another piece of pancake into his mouth, chewing guiltily.

"There really is nothing to hate about you Rachel; you're a wonderful girl, and Finn is lucky to have you." Carole told her, and Rachel smiled, looking at Finn who was smiling at her proudly. She thought they were doing a lot more talking about her then they were doing about Christmas.

"I am." Finn agreed with is mom, and Rachel felt her face get red. Yes, Finn was most definitely in love with her, but he wasn't proposing. It was just something that Rachel was going to have to accept, except she couldn't accept that at all.

The rest of breakfast was filled with laughter and talk about how perfect this Christmas had come out. Rachel had always imagined what Christmas must have been like for children and families, and while she always had the magical, "Santa Claus is coming to town" Christmas in her head, she thought this family oriented, in the mountains of Canada Christmas was so much better. She really hoped this wouldn't be her first and last Christmas in Canada.

When breakfast was over and Rachel and Finn washed and dried the dishes while singing Christmas carols to each other, the family seemed to disperse to their gifts, finding themselves busy with figuring out how to work the new vacuum cleaner and playing that new video game. Rachel sat on the couch, watching Finn play his new video game with a serious intent look on his face. She held the gold star keychain in her hand, turning it over in her hand over and over again, trying to figure out how she had convinced herself that Finn was going to propose to her, and how he in reality didn't.

"Hey Finn," Rachel asked quietly, her eyes still on the rather beautiful gold star. Finn didn't even look away from the screen of the TV, making a little sound through his mouth, indicating that he was listening to Rachel, "Will I come back here for Christmas next year?"

Finn paused, silently and slowly turning to face Rachel with a confused expression on his face. It took him a moment to answer her, Rachel waiting patiently for Finn to say something.

"Where else would we go for Christmas?" Finn asked, and then he turned back around, pressing the play button and going back to playing his game. Rachel let out a sigh of relief; clearly Finn had not actually understood what Rachel was trying to say (which was if she was still going to be in Finn's life by the next time Christmas rolled around; the absence of the proposal had Rachel doubting Finn's love for her just a little bit right now), and had understood her question to mean if they would be going anywhere else for Christmas. Either way though, Finn knew Rachel wasn't going anywhere, so that means he was at some point was planning on marrying her, right? _Right?_

Rachel was distracted to ask Finn anymore questions after that because then her cell phone rang, Quinn calling to wish her a merry Christmas. They talked together for a while; Puck taking over the phone at some point to ask Rachel jokingly if her and Finn had done it yet in every room in the house yet. According to him, it was an essential couple thing to do in the house of the parent's, something Quinn and Puck had done many times in his mom's house. Quinn took the phone back from Puck after that, apologizing to Rachel for Puck's rude words and imagination. Rachel was used to Puck though; she had known him for a long time now ever since he started dating Quinn and had to see even more of him afterwards once she started dating Finn, and the two guys had become good friends.

"Rachel, I need your help with something. It's important." Finn said suddenly, turning off his game and coming towards Rachel while she was still on the phone with Quinn. Rachel held up her pointer finger at him, signaling to Finn to wait a couple of seconds so she could finish her conversation with Quinn before hanging up. Once she had said her last goodbye and merry Christmas, Rachel allowed Finn to pull her up from the couch, and followed him upstairs.

"Is this going to take long Finn, because I want to call my dads." Rachel said as she walked up the stairs, Finn leading. He didn't answer as he opened his bedroom door, and slipped in, Rachel doing the same. Inside the bedroom, Finn jumped onto the bed, a grin on his face as he stared at Rachel for a moment before patting the spot on the bed in front of him. Rachel joined him on the bed curiously.

"What's going on?" Rachel giggled and Finn nervously bit his lower lip, trying to figure out his words. He had to do this perfectly or his entire plan was going to backfire on him. But staring at Rachel's happy face, he realized this was a lot harder to do in front of her then it had actually had been in front of the mirror. Like for example, she could think he was insane.

"I need to ask you something that asks for your serious importance." Finn said slowly, and Rachel nodded, not sure that Finn had used the correct words, but not wanting to make him more nervous by telling him so. She honestly did not know what this was all about; Rachel knew Finn wasn't going to propose. First of all, that moment had already come and passed and Rachel was more sure than ever that proposing was the last thing on Finn's mind and even if he were to ask Rachel to marry him, this would not be the right place to do it.

"Okay. What is it Finn?" Rachel asked, and Finn took another deep breathe, as if preparing himself for something big. Rachel tried to wait patiently as she stared at Finn, watching him closely. What was going on here?

"We've been dating for a long time, Rachel, and I love you very much." Finn started, and Rachel nodded in encouragement for him to continue, "You're all that I think about, and when I'm with you, I feel, um, whole. Okay, that didn't come out right. What I mean is that when I'm with you, I feel good about myself, and really, _really _happy. You are, Rachel, you're everything to me, and I knew since the moment I met you that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Well, I might not have known it the _moment _I met you since you weren't very nice in that first moment, but I knew it by the end of the day. And I just love you a lot, and I love spending time with you. Am I making any sense here?"

"I love you very much too Finn." Rachel said with a smile, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as Finn let out a nervous laugh. It was just like him to be this nervous about something as simple as being honest about his feelings for Rachel. Instead of telling Finn if he was making any sense (in all honesty, he really wasn't, but Rachel knew what he meant to say either way), she simply nodded her head in encouragement for Finn to continue. He let out a sigh of relief as if he hadn't known Rachel loved him, and opened his mouth to speak again.

"I know you do, and I know we've been very serious for a while. And so I was thinking…." Finn dragged out into silence, going red in the face and looking everywhere but at Rachel. She pulled her eyebrows together in thought; was Finn talking about what Rachel dared not to think about? He couldn't have- but no; why would he be talking about that? If Finn wanted to propose to her, he surely would have done it this morning when he had the perfect moment. But he missed that perfect moment, and now Finn was left with an empty space of no engagement ring.

"Finn, what are you trying to say?" Rachel asked, slowly getting more excited. Maybe this was a proposal; it would be very Finn to trip around his words and sweat bullets while doing so. She let herself be filled up with that hope, that possibility that this might be the moment where she saw the engagement ring and was asked to marry Finn. She sat up more, trying to keep the smile off her face while Finn still sat there as nervous as ever.

"What I'm trying to say is that I think it's about time that we…" Finn hesitated for a second, shifting his eyes to look into Rachel's excited ones, "I think it's time that we moved in together."

No; that was not what Rachel was expecting to hear.

"What did you say?" She asked quickly, her voice hard like stone. Finn's eyes widened when he heard the tone in Rachel's voice. She didn't sound happy, in fact, she sounded angry. Rachel felt the hope and excitement in her diminish and be replaced with a large emptiness in which Rachel felt her entire body burning with anger. That was it; Finn had so many moments to propose to Rachel, and he missed every single one of them! She was sick of this, yes, Rachel loved Finn more then she could ever think possible, but she wasn't going to wait anymore! This was very much the last straw!

"Um, I said I wanted to move in together. You don't like that idea? That's not okay with you?" Finn asked, watching Rachel's expression closely. She frowned at him, trying to keep her temper down, but dammit, this was a joke! One year and half of nothing but love, and Finn wouldn't even ask her to marry him! Weren't you supposed to ask the person to marry them if you truly loved them and knew you wanted to spend the rest of your life with them? Wasn't that how it worked? And even if it wasn't, Finn still loved her and wanted to marry her, didn't he?

"No Finn; it's not okay." Rachel said in a strained voice, and Finn opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come out. He was so confused; he thought Rachel would love the idea of them moving in together. Finn had been thinking about it for a while now, and he really did think Rachel would agree with him, but this reaction was something he hadn't called for. Where had he gone wrong?

"I've been waiting all week, and I've been quiet about it and patient and expecting, but it hasn't happened yet, and I don't think it will and that frustrates me so much! I don't understand it Finn; you talk about how much you love me and that there's no one else you would want to spend the rest of your life with, but _oh, look at that! _still no engagement ring! Still no marriage proposal, still no 'will you marry me Rachel Berry?', still no little, black, velvet box with a beautiful engagement ring in it! Actually no, there is a little black velvet box in this room, in fact, it's in that closet over there," Rachel points to the closed closet, Finn's wide eyes following her hand and then shifting back to her angry face, "But I guess that's not an engagement ring because you still haven't asked me. I guess that's just there for the heck of it, right Finn? Right, I'm right, you obviously don't want to marry me, the only thing you want to do is give me stupid star key chains."

Rachel huffed loudly once she was done speaking, breathing heavily as she stared daggers at Finn. He was speechless; Finn's hands were up in the air as if to say something but nothing would come out of his mouth. Rachel kept glaring at him, her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for Finn to say something in response. She couldn't believe she had actually admitted that much to Finn; Rachel didn't mean to word vomit and say everything she was thinking, but she just couldn't stop herself. It just felt so good to get everything out in the open.

"I thought you liked key chains." Finn finally said pathetically, and Rachel growled, pushing passed him to leave the room. But before she could walk pass him, he gripped her arm tightly, stopping Rachel in her tracks. Slowly, she turned to face him in confusion, hoping for some sort of answer from him, but Finn's expression was unreadable.

"You know Rachel; you've never had much patience. Maybe if you had more, you wouldn't have thrown a fit and instead have waited until tonight." Finn said casually, putting his hand in his pocket, and taking something small out of it, clutching it in his hand. Rachel's eyes followed the box he was holding. "I was _going _to give this to you tonight, but it's clear to me that you just can't stand to wait any longer."

"Is that…?" Rachel started, but she couldn't finish her question because Finn had opened his hand for Rachel to see the small black velvet box. She let out a little squeak of excitement, covering her hands with her mouth as Finn slowly opened the box lid to reveal the ring inside.

"The whole surprise part is kind of ruined now, so why not just spoil the entire plan, huh? Besides, I think I like it this way better." Finn said, still in that casual tone as if he didn't realize what was happening around them. And holy crap; he had just bended down on one knee and Rachel felt faint coming. This would not be a good time to faint. She moved her eyes from Finn's smiling face to the ring sitting within the small box, a smile slowly appearing on her face.

It wasn't a huge ring like women receive in the movies; it was a thin silver band with a small beautiful diamond that seemed to sparkle with color. Rachel thought that the sparkling colors was probably from the lights in the room only, but something told her it was more than that. This ring looked different from other rings and jewelry Rachel saw in the glass cases of Tiffany & Co.; this ring seemed to have an ancient beauty to it that Rachel couldn't even understand. It was breathtaking really.

"This ring was my mother's, given to her by her first husband and my father, Christopher. She hasn't worn it since she remarried Burt, but instead she gave it to me so that when I find the woman I wanted to spend the rest of forever with, I could give it to her. My father had this ring especially made for my mother, and he said it was made for the finger of the woman in which he loved. And so, I want this ring to sit on your finger, because you are the woman in which I love. In which I will always love. Marry me, Rachel, and I promise you will not go one day without being loved." Finn said gently, Rachel's eyes moving from the ring to Finn's face. He smiled at her, surprised that those words actually came out alright. He was worried they would come out as scrambled as his own thoughts were, but that was actually pretty good. Rachel kept staring at him, clearly in shock.

"It's funny really; I had imagined you doing this and I get so excited just thinking about it, but I've never actually thought of how to answer this." Rachel said thoughtfully, and worried lines appeared on Finn's forehead. The way Rachel put that didn't sound good.

"You don't want to marry me?" He asked, his voice deflated and saddened. At hearing those words, Rachel quickly shook her head, assuring Finn that that was not the case at all.

"No that's not what I meant! Of course I want to marry you, I do! I meant that I just never thought of what would happen after I said yes. But I do want to marry you, and I accept your proposal. Yes Finn Hudson, I will marry you." Rachel said, waving her hand as if she was blowing away the idea that Finn might think that Rachel didn't want to marry him, and then bringing herself back to the moment that mattered. She would deal with whatever was to come after this later.

"That's good." Finn said with sigh of relief and then stood up, taking the ring out of the box delicately and taking Rachel's hand to put it on her finger. He slipped it on slowly, both Finn and Rachel staring at the finger intently. "It's a perfect fit. I was worried."

"I wasn't." Rachel said, looking up at Finn with a grin, and he grinned back at her, wrapping his arms around Rachel's waist to pick her up off the floor, diving in for a kiss. He held on to her hand the entire time too. She giggled into the kiss, pulling away for a moment to whisper something to Finn.

"Best Christmas ever." Rachel whispered, and Finn gave her a bigger smile, going in for another kiss.

**AN: All I have left is the epilogue now, which I'll be publishing tomorrow (on Christmas Eve). By the way, Finn's line in the last chapter, "**_**What is this?" **_**was a reference to The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the song that Jack sings when he discovers Christmas Town (What's This?). **


	7. Epilogue

**AN: I had written and thought of many different ways to end this story, but I ultimately decided on this one. It came out shorter than expected. Thank you to everyone who has read this story until its very end. **

_One Year Later_

Rachel's signature giggle rang through the air as Finn flung open the front door, snow blowing in as he carried Rachel bridal style into the cottage. They were wrapped in their heaviest winter coats, a red hat on Rachel's head and a striped scarp around her neck with the end of the dress sticking out under the coat. Finn was wearing one of his puffy vests over his suit and a blue hat, closing the door with his foot. As soon as the door was closed, the blowing of the wind calmed down, and both Finn and Rachel stared at the front hall, the door to the family room slightly open so they could see a glimpse of the fireplace.

Quietly, Finn kept carrying Rachel to the family room, gently laying her on the couch in front of the fire, moving to take her coat off. Rachel silently waved him off with a smile, taking the coat off herself as Finn too off his own coat and hat and went over to start the fire. Burt left a couple of logs of wood by the fire like he promised, and Finn smiled as he put the logs into the fire, picking up the match box that sat next to the logs to start the fire. When the logs caught fire, and the flames raced up, Finn went to join Rachel on the couch. She was laying on the sofa, the coat and hat and scarf on the floor, and that huge white dress taking up the whole couch. He moved over some of the material to sit next to Rachel, Rachel shifting to let Finn lay in between Rachel's legs, his head on her stomach.

"Merry Christmas Mrs. Hudson." Finn said with a smile, looking up at Rachel who grinned back at him. She leaned down to peck Finn's lips, pulling away quickly in a teasing manner. Finn smirked at her.

"Is it Christmas already?" Rachel asked in a silly tone, and Finn's gleaming eyes shifted to the clock hanging on the wall above the fireplace, still smiling like a fool. The clock read that it was four in the morning, and neither Finn nor Rachel felt tired.

"I would say so." He said, and Finn shifted in his spot between Rachel's legs, moving up her body to give Rachel a deep kiss. She smiled into the kiss, wrapping her arms tightly around Finn's neck as to pull him closer. Everything was so perfect in that moment, everything had gone the way Rachel had wanted to it goes, even better then she thought.

"Merry Christmas husband." Rachel breathed out as she pulled away from the heated kiss; Finn's breathe mixing with hers. She stared into his eyes, playing with the hairs on the back of his neck as Rachel thought about where she was at that moment. She was in the cottage in Canada with Finn, on Christmas Eve, well technically it was Christmas day now, and they were on their honeymoon. Because they had just got married, Rachel thought to herself, still not able to get used to the idea. She was finally married to Finn. One year later and Rachel and Finn were now married; they were married on freaking Christmas Eve.

"Want to go up to bed? I'm tired." Finn asked, and Rachel's smile went wider. She nodded, and Finn stood up, picking Rachel back up again to carry her to the bedroom. He quietly went up the steps of the old house, stopping when he got to the second floor, looking from his old parent's bedroom to his room. His parents would have a bigger bed, but Finn would still feel really weird making love to Rachel in there. His room on the other hand was small and crowded, but at least Rachel and he would be comfortable there. Making his decision, Finn carried Rachel into his bedroom, dropping her softly onto the cowboy blankets. She smiled softly at him.

"Join me." Rachel instructed, her arms out towards Finn in an inviting manner, and Finn smiled as he joined Rachel on the bed, snuggling into her side. Rachel wrapped her arms around her new husband, rubbing her head into his chest.

"I can't believe this is all ours. This house I mean. This cottage; it's no longer a holiday home now Finn, it's our home." Rachel said quietly, smiling into Finn's skin. She felt his hands running through her long hair, massaging her scalp. She let out sigh of content.

"Yeah it is. Everything's going to be okay Rachel." Finn told her, and Rachel thought about everything she was leaving behind in New York to live in this cottage with Finn here. She was leaving her journalism job at a steady magazine company, but Rachel had already been hired by a new magazine here in Canada. She wouldn't be able to see Quinn and Puck and Beth as often as she would like, but Rachel would still be able to call them, and they could visit on holidays. Her fathers were even farther from her now, but Rachel knew that they only wanted what was best for their little girl, and being with Finn in Canada was what was best for Rachel.

Those were only some of the things Rachel was leaving behind in New York, Finn was another story. The band he was part of had a hard time understanding why their drummer would want to leave them for a girl and a cottage, and before Finn could get around to really explaining the reason for his leaving, they kicked him out of the band. Rachel was worried this would make Finn depressed; it was five months before their wedding that Finn's band dumped him, and Rachel didn't want to get married if Finn was too upset to get married himself. But he bounced back quickly, saying that he didn't think a lot of the guys in the band had potential anyway, and very soon after, auditioned for a band in Canada and got in.

Things were going smoother than Rachel had ever expected them to; sure, they had to push back the wedding a little so it wouldn't clash with Kurt and Blaine's (which was lovely in every way), but Rachel liked the idea of getting married on Christmas Eve when Finn came up with the idea. Christmas did have a significant meaning in her and Finn's lives after all, and this cottage was only icing on the cake. It turned out that Finn had been planning some time before he proposed to move into the cottage officially with Rachel once they got married, the reason why he asked her if she liked the cottage anyway. And honestly, Rachel couldn't think of a better place she would rather live with Finn anyway.

"If it keeps snowing out there, we'll be snowed in tomorrow." Rachel said, looking at the window and noticing that it was still snowing outside in the cold, black sky. Finn's eyes followed Rachel's, silently nodding.

"Don't worry about it Rachel, let it snow. That way we can spend all day in bed tomorrow." Finn said, pulling Rachel closer to him, his hands now skimming over her wedding dress, feeling her back for the zipper. Rachel felt Finn's hands touch the zipper, smiling as he slowly pulled it down to reveal Rachel's soft skin.

"I love you Finn." Rachel breathed out, and moved forward to give Finn a crushing kiss, instantly taking control. Finn breathed heavily as he pulled away for only a moment to respond to Rachel, his hands now running over her bare back.

"I love you Rachel." He said, and with a grin, Rachel kissed him again, slowly losing herself with her husband. Ever since she was a little girl, Rachel had imagined what celebrating Christmas would be like. She imagined what being proposed to would be like. Rachel imagined what her wedding night would be like, but she never expected any of it to be as wonderful as it was with Finn. It was certainly the best Christmas ever.

Even better than last years!

**Wishing everyone Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Years! I hope you enjoyed this Christmas Finchel fanfic! **


End file.
